The Battle is Joined
by JayColin
Summary: SLASH AU Harry/Cedric Draco/Roger - An apparition accident dramatically and permanently changes the lives of Harry Potter and Draco Malfoy, who find themselves inextricably bound to each other in a way they never imagined was even possible. They soon realize that they must put their rivalry aside and find a way to peacefully co-exist and cooperate as the alternative is unthinkable.
1. The Accident

The Battle is Joined

By J.C. Vascardi

-o-0-o-

Disclaimer: All characters and places featured in this story that relates to Harry Potter are the property of J.K. Rowling, various publishers, and Warner Brothers. I'm not profiting on this story and it is not my intent to infringe on anyone's copyright or trademark. The only things about this story that I own are the characters and storylines not featured in the books or other media.

Summary: An Apparition accident brings Harry and Draco closer than they could have ever imagined in their wildest nightmares. Finding out that the results of the accident are permanent is the last thing either of them wanted to hear. The question is whether their new reality is a curse that they have no choice but to bear or a blessing in disguise.

-o-0-o-

Chapter One:

The Accident

-o-0-o-

In the chaos that followed the news that the Death Eaters were attacking the World Cup, a terrified Harry Potter found himself alone in a field. He was barefoot and only wearing a pair of red cotton pajama bottoms.

The sickly green of the Dark Mark was hanging in the sky above his head, bringing back memories of the night that he'd lost his parents, as the color reminded him of the Killing Curse that took his mum. He could hear fighting and screams all around him, and he didn't know if any of his friends were safe because they were separated from each other what seemed to him like hours ago, even though he knew it wasn't. And to make matters worse, he didn't have his wand.

Seeing movement and a glimpse of blond hair out of the corner of his eye, Harry reacted, running after whoever it was, catching them, and causing them both to fall over in the tall grass.

"Let go of me!" a familiar voice shouted.

"Malfoy," Harry said, instantly recognizing the voice. "I should have known. You're probably the one who put the Mark in the sky."

"I did no such thing," Draco said. "Now unhand me, Potter. My father will hear of this!"

"I'll unhand you all right… when I turn you over to the authorities for the junior Death Eater that you are. You're not going to escape punishment this time, Malfoy."

Draco was in no mood to argue. He was tired, scared, half-naked, cold, and now thanks to Potter tackling him, he was also damp and muddy since the ruddy berk managed to land them in a mud puddle. He had his wand in his back pocket but he couldn't reach it as he had one arm pinned between his back and the ground and Potter holding onto his other one with a death grip.

Wanting nothing more than to get away from his nemesis who he would never admit aloud was superior to him, at least when it came to physical strength, Draco did the only thing he could think of and attempted to Apparate.

Of course, considering that he was only fourteen, had no license and no training, this probably wasn't the best idea he'd ever had. He also wasn't thinking very clearly about his destination or the act itself. In his desire to get away from Harry, he also didn't think his action through long enough to realize that because Harry was holding onto him, that he'd end up going with Side-Along.

The last thing Harry or Draco remembered was the sudden excruciating pain that flooded their bodies out of nowhere and was unlike anything either one of them had ever felt before in their lives. Mercifully, it didn't last long before they both blacked out.

-o-0-o-

Harry groaned as he blinked his eyes open and they struggled to adjust to the low light. When they finally did, he couldn't place where he was. He knew he was in a warm bed and fully dressed in a pair of comfortable silk pajamas. Needless to say, this threw his mind for a loop because all of his clothes were hand-me-downs from Dudley, and while it was true that his aunt and uncle spoiled him rotten, they had never bought him a pair of silk pajamas.

He was just about to call out and see if there was anyone around who could tell him where he was when he turned his head slightly to the left and his eyes widened in surprise when he realized that he wasn't alone in bed. Closing his eyes briefly as he turned his head more, he opened his eyes and nearly had a heart attack when he saw a blond head on the pillow next to him. Eyes adjusted to the low light, it took only a few seconds to realize whose head it was and that didn't make him feel any better.

"What the fuck!" Harry yelled, his voice scratchy. "Malfoy, why are you in bed with me? Get out!"

Harry's yelling made Draco wake up and while it took him a moment to fully wake up, when he did, he almost had a heart attack of his own when he saw Harry bloody Potter in his bed.

"Potter! Get out of my bed!"

The two young men immediately jumped away from each other… or at least that is, they tried to jump away from each other. Instead, they ended up toppling out of bed and onto the floor, their backs hitting it with an audible thud, their legs still on the bed and tangled up in the blankets. It wasn't long before they realized that try as they might, they couldn't get away from each other.

Taking a deep breath, Draco said, "Potter, stop struggling. Something is wrong."

"Yeah, no shit, I woke up in bed with you!"

"I don't like that anymore than you do, Potter, but don't you find it even the slightest bit odd that when we tried to get away from each other, we ended up falling out of bed? And that we fell off the same side of the bed mind you, even though I'm sure we tried going in opposite directions?"

Harry was quiet for a moment as he contemplated what Draco had just said. As much as he didn't like the idea of admitting that the blond was right about anything, he didn't have much of a choice in this case.

Turning his head away from Draco and looking up at the ceiling, Harry's eyes widened when he saw his legs still tangled in the blankets. The problem was that Draco was lying right next to him and yet, he only saw two legs…

"Uh, Draco, where are your legs?"

"I didn't give you permission to use my first name."

"Focus on the question, damn it!"

"They're on the bed, why?"

"You're sure?"

"Of course I'm sure."

"That's funny because I could swear that mine are too. And yet I only see two legs."

Draco scoffed, about to tell Potter that he was clearly blind without his glasses, which he only now noted that his nemesis wasn't wearing when he turned his head and looked at where it felt like his legs were… only to see that Potter was right. There were only two legs coming down off the bed.

Reaching out with his right hand and pinching his right leg as hard as he could, Harry winced, even as Draco cried out and said, "Ow! Potter! That hurt!"

"What do you mean that hurt? That was my leg I just pinched."

"That's impossible because I felt it."

"I don't see how, since I felt it too…" Harry began, as he tried again to move away from Draco, only to note that he couldn't feel his left arm.

For a brief moment he thought maybe he was laying on it, but as he reached across his chest, trying to find it he realized that the silk pajamas that he was wearing matched the ones Draco was wearing perfectly. Squinting a bit, he then realized that they matched because... because…

"Shit. Shit. Shit! Shit! Oh shit, shit, shit," Harry began saying with increasing volume like a mantra over and over, as his brain tried to process the fact that at he and Draco were not simply wearing matching pairs of pajamas but literally the same singular pair.

"So uncouth," Draco muttered.

"Draco shut it. Am I crazy? Or are we wearing the same pair of pajamas?" Before Draco could respond, Harry, in a desperate tone, added, "Please tell me that I'm crazy."

Draco was about to respond, but before he could, light flooded the room and an unfamiliar masculine voice said, _**"Vous n'êtes pas fou, car vous portez la même paire."**_

With the lights on, Harry and Draco could now both clearly see what Harry had already started to suspect, much to his horror and that was that not only were they in fact wearing the same pair of pajamas, but that they had woken up in bed together because… because…

No, no, no, NO!

They couldn't believe what their eyes were telling them, because that was impossible. After a few more minutes however, they turned their heads to face one another, matching looks of total abject horror on their faces, before they both started screaming at the top of their lungs.

Within moments, however, the same masculine voice that had just spoken muttered a spell that neither of them could hear the incantation of over their combined screaming. But they immediately understood what spell it was when their screams were cut off due to their rising panic dying away and being replaced with a calm feeling of serenity.

Putting his wand away, the man said, _**"Bien mieux,"**_ before he moved into the two boy's field of vision and added, _**"Je suis content de voir que vous êtes tous les deux enfin réveillés, même si j'espère que tomber du lit n'a pas rouvert vos blessures."**_

The next thing they knew, the unfamiliar man was helping them up and getting them situated on the bed. Despite the Calming Charm, they were both sure that their eyes were about as wide as dinner plates as they looked down and saw that not only were there only two legs between them, but also only two arms and a single torso.

Without even thinking about it, Draco asked with the comfortable switch of being fluent in the language, _**"Qui êtes-vous et où suis-je?"**_

"Could you two please speak English?" Harry asked, in what would have been an annoyed tone, except that the Calming Charm didn't really allow him to speak in any way that wasn't a calm monotone.

"Hmm, interesting," the man said. "One of you speaks French easily and the other doesn't appear to understand a word of it." Shaking his head, he said, "My name is Luc Flamel and you're in my home."

"Which is where?" Draco asked at the same time that Harry asked, "Flamel? Is that any relation to Nicolas Flamel?"

"In the wizarding village of Mont Calais in France," Luc said. "And if you're referring to the alchemist, then yes, he's an ancestor."

"Mont Calais," Draco said. "That's the village near my family's chateau."

"Your family's chateau?" Luc asked. "There's only one chateau near here. Are you a member of the Malfoy family?"

"I am," Draco said, as he tilted his head in Harry's direction and added. "He isn't, however."

Before Luc could respond, Harry asked, "Is this some kind of horrific nightmare? Because if it's not, I don't even want to say what it looks like."

"I'm afraid, young man, that you and your companion are very much awake, so the chances of it being a nightmare aren't very good," Luc said. "As for what you're seeing, if I were to hazard a guess you had what was no doubt a very painful and very severe splinching accident."

"Splinching? Isn't that involved with Apparition?" Harry asked confused, before exclaiming, "I don't even know how to Apparate! I'm only fourteen!"

"All the more reason not to try it," Luc said, in a slightly scolding tone. "Anyway, when I found the two of you, you were lying on the ground about a mile outside of the village. You're lucky that I frequently head out to the forest between the village and the chateau to collect herbs because if I hadn't found you when I did, you probably would have bled to death."

Before either boy could say anything, Luc reached forward and began unbuttoning their pajama top, which had two rows of buttons starting diagonally at their necks and going down until they met just above the abdomen and continued down, forming a capital letter y.

Harry's and Draco's eyes both widened in shock as they looked down. They could see a curving line of white linen bandages affixed to their skin emerging from underneath the v-shaped silk cloth between their heads and going all the way down into their pajama bottoms.

Reaching out with a hesitant hand, Harry touched his skin just under his right nipple, which was nicely tanned from all the long hours he spent tending Aunt Petunia's garden before he then reached over to the other side of the bandages and touched the much paler skin.

Draco quickly slapped his hand away and said, "I didn't give you permission to touch me, Potter."

Quirking an eyebrow at Draco, Harry said, "Draco, as much as I don't want to even contemplate this, it would seem that we share a body now, so your skin is my skin and I don't need your permission to touch it."

Shaking his head and trying desperately not to believe what Harry and his eyes were telling him, he said, "No, it's not your skin, it's my skin."

"Boys, don't fight," Luc said. "In truth, you're both right because whether you accept it or not, your skin belongs to both of you now, as does everything else below your necks."

Draco's eyes widened at this, as he looked at Luc, gulped, and asked, "Everything?"

Luc shook his head, "Well, not quite everything. It would seem that your splinching accident spared your penises and testicles, but other than that? I'm afraid it's everything… so, two arms, two legs, ten fingers, ten toes, one torso, and yes before you ask, one arse."

"How?!" Draco and Harry both asked in unison.

"Well, considering that he," Luc said motioning towards Harry since he didn't yet know either boys' name, "says that he didn't Apparate, I'm guessing it must have been you, Mr. Malfoy, who not only attempted to Apparate but to Side-Along Apparate both yourself and your friend here. To be blunt, you screwed it up badly enough that you both splinched and left behind significant parts of your bodies."

"My guess," a female voice said, prompting the two teens to look towards the door into the room, where a young lady that looked about Luc's age was now standing, "is that you both left behind an arm, a leg, and about a third or so of your torsos."

Luc nodded and introduced the woman as his wife, Colette, before he added, "Such an extreme splinching would have undoubtedly been fatal, but since there were two of you in close proximity and I'm guessing you both left behind opposing limbs, that your respective magic, in a last ditch effort to save your lives, locked onto each other and healed the damage as best it could by fusing your bodies together."

Luc paused for a moment, before he continued, "As you can probably guess from the bandages, you still had a pretty deep cut winding its way down your shared torso, both front and back, that was bleeding when I found you. Not enough to be lethal, if properly treated in time, which luckily for you, I am the village healer."

"You've also been in comas for a little over a week now," Colette added. "So, since you didn't have any identification on you, all we could do was keep you comfortable and hope that you could tell us who you were when you woke up."

"I'm Draco Malfoy," Draco said. "Son of Lucius and Narcissa Malfoy."

Harry was a bit surprised that they hadn't recognized him from the tell-tale scar on his forehead, which he assumed was still there, but since he hadn't seen his reflection yet, he didn't know for sure. Of course, he had never traveled outside of the United Kingdom before, so he didn't actually know how far beyond its borders they'd heard of him and his bloody scar. "I'm Harry Potter, son of the late James and Lily Potter."

"Well, I guess we'll try to contact Mr. Malfoy's parents, is there anybody that we can contact for you, Mr. Potter?" Colette asked. "Being unidentified John Does for the last nine days, I'm sure your families are worried sick."

Sighing, Luc said, "Not to be a downer, but, it's also possible that they think you're dead. Based on how much I'm guessing you both left behind when you splinched, in my professional opinion, it wouldn't be a stretch for them to believe that you'd died. The damage was extensive enough that no healer worth their salt would say that it wasn't fatal."

Colette nodded. She wasn't a healer herself, but being married to one, she'd picked up enough over the years to know that if somebody had both an arm, a leg, and a third of their torsos violently ripped away from the rest of their body, they'd be losing blood and quite possibly internal organs at an alarming enough rate for their continued existence to be in grave peril. Anybody who found those parts which had been removed would no doubt come to the same conclusion.

Gesturing at their fused body, Harry asked, "This can be fixed, right? I mean, we can go back to being separate again?"

"I'm afraid not, Mr. Potter," Luc said. "It's been nine days. If I knew where you'd come from I might have been able to get there and fetch what you left behind, but that's only if you'd been lying where I found you for a few minutes, maybe half an hour at the most. Any longer and the blood loss to the parts of yourselves that you left behind would probably have been too much for the tissue to remain living."

"From the tests that we've run on you," Colette added, "it would also seem that your magical cores have connected to each other. So, even if by some miracle we could find the other parts of you and they were not dead and decaying tissue by now, I'm afraid that splitting you apart at this point would render you both little more than squibs."

Shaking his head, a look of total disbelief on his face, as the Calming Charm had now started wearing off, Draco asked, "What? Do you mean to tell me that we're stuck like this? Permanently?"

Luc sighed. "Unless you fancy life as a squib with only your left arm and leg and half your internal organs missing, then yes, Mr. Malfoy, I'm afraid you very much are stuck this way."

"Oh Sweet Circe's sagging tits!" Draco said. "I think I'd rather be dead then sharing a body with Harry fucking Potter!"

"Trust me the feeling is mutual," Harry said. "If I had to choose somebody to share my body with, not that I ever would mind you, Draco sodding Malfoy is the very last person I would pick."

Shaking his head, Harry added, "Honestly, Draco, I wouldn't pick you for this, even if my life depended on it and you were the last person left on the face of the Earth!"

"This is all your fault, you know."

Harry looked at Draco wide-eyed and asked. "My fault? How the bloody hell do you figure that? You're the one who Apparated us, so it was you, not me that splinched us so badly that this happened."

"It's your fault because you grabbed me and wouldn't let go. I wouldn't have had to try to Apparate to get away from you if you hadn't done that."

"I only did that because you sent up the bloody Dark Mark over the World Cup!"

"I did no such thing, Potter," Draco said through gritted teeth. "I don't even know how to cast the Dark Mark. I know it's a spell but I don't know the incantation. How could I? I'm not a Death Eater, you ignoramus! The Dark Lord's been dead since we were both a year old so he's not exactly out recruiting now is he?"

"Boys, boys, calm down," Colette said. "Fighting isn't going to change anything. I can see that you apparently hate each other's guts, but I suggest that you get over that and quickly, because whether you like it or not, Draco's guts are now your guts, Harry, and vice versa. That's why you were both comatose for so long. While Luc managed to stop the bleeding from the cuts on the outside, your new merged body needed time to heal and repair itself on the inside so it knocked you out to keep you from using any magic that was otherwise needed to save your lives."

Nodding, Luc said, "As usual, my darling wife is correct. You're going to have to learn how to cooperate with each other because there's simply no way you'll be able to go through life otherwise. Walking and anything that requires two hands is going to require you to work together, because I'm sorry, but no matter how it happened, this is permanent, so you're just going to have to deal with it."

After a moment's pause, he added, "Now, since we were side-tracked and you didn't answer the question earlier, is there anybody we can contact for you, Mr. Potter?"

"My guardians are muggles," Harry said as he heaved a sigh. "But you can try Albus Dumbledore. He's my school headmaster."

Draco sighed as well. "That's fine. He'll know how to contact my parents. My father is on the Hogwarts Board of Governors."

Luc nodded. "Okay, Colette, dear could you handle that while I check the bandages on their back?"

"Of course," Colette said before she left the room.

"Okay boys, take your top off and turn around," Luc said. "From the position you were in when I came in, it seems you fell backward out of bed and onto your back, so I need to check the bandages on that side."

-o-0-o-

Meanwhile, Albus Dumbledore was sitting behind his desk in his office at Hogwarts. The only thing keeping him in anything even remotely approaching a happy mood was Fawkes' singing. Although even that had a rather mournful hint that it normally didn't have, but had unfortunately become commonplace over the last week.

The Death Eater attack at the World Cup would have been concerning enough, but the Dark Mark being cast into the sky was an even more worrying development. Especially when the morning after the attack the Aurors had found two severed legs along with two severed arms still attached to a portion of the torsos of their owners lying in a patch of grass that was stained brown with dried blood.

On top of that, both Harry Potter and Draco Malfoy had gone missing. A frantic search had quickly ensued, as every possible resource was put into finding the two missing boys, until finally the Ministry was forced to call it off after the severed limbs found at the scene were identified. Initially, the healers from the British Ministry and St. Mungo's had only been able to determine the relative age of the limbs and that there were two victims.

Thankfully, the Aurors who found the limbs did think to place them in stasis. Unfortunately, they were already long dead from blood loss at that point, but a Master Healer who'd come in from China to watch the World Cup was able to find enough trace magic left in one of the arms, the primary wand arm of the person it had belonged to, that they were able to run a magical signature test and then compare it with the British Ministry's records.

Two of the severed limbs belonged to none other than Draco Malfoy. Telling the families had definitely been the hardest thing that Albus had ever had to do. The Malfoys were devastated at the loss of their only son.

With Draco being identified as one of the two victims, on a hunch that he prayed with every fiber of his being was wrong, Albus had Remus come in to smell the other pair of limbs. Albus was hoping against all hope that his enhanced werewolf senses wouldn't pick up any resemblance to Harry. Unfortunately, however, because Remus considered Harry to be part of his pack, he was able to detect the faint trace of Harry's scent.

Where the Malfoys, Remus, Sirius, and the Weasleys had been overcome with grief, enough so that even Lucius Malfoy showed emotion for the first time since Albus had known him, the Dursleys reacted very differently. Much to Albus's complete and utter horror, Vernon and Petunia, when told that their nephew was most likely dead, expressed joy that they were finally rid of him. Dudley even cheered.

It took everything in him for Albus not to kill them on the spot and was glad that he'd gone to Privet Drive himself to tell them because if Remus or Sirius had done it, they would no doubt both be on their way to Azkaban for the violent murder of three muggles who would no doubt have been ripped to shreds. Albus couldn't say that he'd feel particularly sorry for them if that happened, but he was glad that it didn't, if only because nobody would be on their way to prison.

Albus looked up when the chime that rang to signal an incoming Floo-call went off, just before the tell-tale whoosh of the flames igniting. Standing up and walking over to the fireplace, he was surprised when the face of a familiar-looking young woman appeared.

"Colette Flamel?" Albus asked, after a moment, as it had taken him a moment to place the face.

The woman nodded. "Yes, Albus, it's me. Nicolas's great-granddaughter-in-law."

"I haven't seen you in years," Albus said. Honestly, he had thought that she'd be dead by now, what with the destruction of the stone three years ago. But then again Nicolas never did say how much Elixir the family had stored, just that they had enough to set their affairs in order… whatever that meant. "How are you and Luc?"

"We're doing well," Colette answered. "Luc recently became the resident healer in Mont Calais, France. We've had a pair of unidentified teenage boys here at our home for the last nine days after Luc found them unconscious on his way back home from collecting herbs in the nearby forest. They were both comatose until now, but they woke up this evening."

"So why contact me?"

"They told me to," Colette answered. "They identified themselves as a pair of your students, Albus. Draco Malfoy and Harry Potter."

Albus's eyes widened as he asked, "Draco and Harry? But, Colette, they're dead. We found enough of their bodies that they couldn't possibly have survived. We'd assumed they were tortured to death by the Death Eaters who attacked the World Cup."

"It's true their injuries were severe," Colette said. "But they weren't caused by Death Eaters. It seems that Harry thought Draco cast the Dark Mark and grabbed him, causing Draco to panic and attempt to Apparate away. He ended up Side-Along Apparating himself and Harry here to France, and splinching them both quite severely in the process."

"Draco is fourteen years old. He has no business attempting Apparition, let alone Side-Along Apparition, let alone from one country to another."

"I don't think it was Mr. Malfoy's intention to come to France," Colette said. "He also didn't intend to take Harry with him, but because he was physically holding onto Draco at the time, he ended up getting caught up in Draco's botched Apparition attempt."

Albus was quiet as he processed this information, prompting Colette to say, "Albus, I should tell you that they would be dead now save for a freak accident which has left them connected."

"Connected?"

Colette nodded. "Fused together, both physically and magically."

Albus just looked at Colette for a moment, before he asked, "Just for clarification, are you saying what I think you're saying?"

"If you think I'm saying that they now share everything below their necks," Colette figured the boys would agree that the headmaster did not need to know about their private parts, "and that their magical cores are now essentially one large interconnected unit just like naturally born wizarding conjoined twins, then yes, that is what I'm saying."

Albus shook his head, as he reached up and stroked his long white beard. "Oh Merlin's beard, that's going to cause issues."

"Yes, Luc and I gathered as much when they woke up and started arguing as we explained their situation. They really don't like each other do they?"

"That's putting it mildly, Colette," Albus said, with a sad shake of his head. "They've been bitter rivals for years now, all the way back to their first year. Still, I suppose alive is better than dead. Are you sure it's them?"

"They told us their names and the names of their parents," Colette said, as she shared what she'd been told. "As for a physical description, Draco is blond with storm grey eyes and pale skin. Harry is brunet with brilliant green eyes, suntanned skin, and a scar on his forehead in the shape of a lightning bolt. Does that sound like them to you?"

"Yes, it does," Albus said. "Although, just to be sure, before I get their loved ones' hopes up, I think I'd prefer to see them for myself. May I come through?"

"Of course, I figured you'd want to," Colette said, as she removed her head from the fireplace so that the headmaster could come through.

-o-0-o-

After checking their bandages, which thankfully had not needed replacing yet as the wounds on their back had healed enough that falling out of bed had not torn them open, Luc left the room to check in with his wife to see if she'd made contact with Albus yet and to make the boys something to eat now that they were awake.

Considering it had been nine days now since they'd eaten anything beyond nutrient potions, he figured they were probably getting a bit hungry by now.

Harry and Draco sat on the bed from a moment, before Harry moved to stand up, but didn't get more than a couple of inches off the bed before falling back down. With a growl, he realized that it was because Draco hadn't been trying to stand up along with him.

"Draco, stand up."

"Why?"

"I want to go to the bathroom."

"Why? We haven't eaten in nine days. Surely you don't need to go to use the loo."

Shaking his head, Harry said, "No, but Luc mentioned there's a full-length mirror in the bathroom. I want to see the damage."

"Well, I'm not ready to see it so I'm staying right here."

"Have it your way," Harry said, before he reached his right hand, now his only hand he supposed, since the left one was Draco's, into their pajama bottoms.

"Potter! What the bloody hell are you doing?" Draco nearly sputtered indignantly when he felt Harry's hand brush his cock.

"I wanted to see what we were packing," Harry said, bluntly. "Luc said we'd each kept our cocks, but I couldn't imagine what that would look like. Since you didn't want to get up to look in the mirror, I decided to investigate another way."

"Potter that's…" Draco stopped mid-sentence and got a look of horror on his face as he thought of something. "Um, Potter, who do you fancy?"

"Why do you care?"

"I should think that would be bloody obvious, Potter," Draco drawled. "Our cocks are now right bloody next to each other and we apparently share an arse. Depending on who you fancy, that is potentially going to cause a rather serious problem."

Harry sighed. "Blokes."

"Oh thank, Merlin," Draco said. "I was worried you liked Weasel's sister."

"Ginny?" Harry asked, disgusted. "Merlin, no. Draco, not only do I think of her as a sister, but she also looks a lot like my late mother. The mere thought of doing anything with her is enough to make me want to puke."

"Well, what do you know? We actually agree on something."

"I'm assuming from your reaction that you also like blokes?"

"Yes, Potter, I do," Draco said. "And I still haven't given you permission to use my given name."

Harry shook his head. "Sorry, Draco, but as long as we share flesh, I'm not calling you by your surname. Which since this is apparently permanent, thanks by the way," his voice practically dripping with sarcasm on those last four words, "you're just going to have to get used to it."

Draco let out a put upon sigh, as he said, "Fine then, Harry. Oh, Merlin, I can't believe that I'm stuck to you of all people."

"Well, you've got nobody to blame but yourself," Harry said, as he removed his hand from their pajamas. Their pajamas. That was definitely going to take some getting used to… along with about ten thousand other things.

Before Draco could argue, Luc came back in carrying a tray. "Boys, don't start. I've got dinner for you and Professor Dumbledore is here to see you."

Setting the tray on a nearby table, Luc asked, "Can you get up and walk that far or do you need help?"

It took a moment for them to coordinate standing up, as it seemed that they each only controlled one leg. They took a few halting first steps, almost falling, but managing to catch themselves before they did, as Draco reached out and steadied his hand against a nearby dresser and Harry was still close enough to the bed to reach out and grab the bedpost.

Albus stayed quiet as he watched from the doorway, as the two boys made it over to the table and sat down. It was definitely them. Very different from the last time he'd seen them, but there was no mistaking them for anyone else other than Draco Malfoy and Harry Potter.

The headmaster stayed quiet for a moment, as Draco poured himself a cup of tea and Harry poured himself a glass of pumpkin juice.

"I'd be careful, boys," Luc said. "You share both a bladder and a stomach now. So, keep that in mind when you eat and drink, because they will fill up faster than they used to."

"Great, just great," Harry muttered, softly enough that Luc and Albus didn't hear it but Draco could not only hear it but also pick up on the sarcasm in Harry's tone.

He would have commented, but in this case, he agreed. Still, he supposed it was a good thing to keep in mind since anytime they both ate they'd now essentially be eating double portions if everything they ate was going to the same place and they were eating the same portion sizes that they used to eat.

"Just one of many things to get used to, I guess," Draco muttered, more or less to himself, but Harry heard it since their heads were now only about half a foot apart, give or take a couple of inches.

Coming forward, Albus said, "Well, Draco, Harry, I see you've had a little accident."

Looking at the headmaster over the rim of his teacup, Draco had the sudden urge to murder the man and his damn twinkling eyes. Unbeknownst to Draco, since their thoughts were still their own, in that moment, Harry was thinking pretty much the same thing.

"Still, I'm glad to see you both alive," Albus said. "Draco, I'm sure your parents will be quite happy to be able to cancel your funeral."

"Maybe they shouldn't," Draco said as he put down his teacup. "Maybe it's better if they just continue to think I'm dead."

"Why would you say such a thing?" Luc asked.

"Look at me," Draco said. "I'm conjoined with Harry bloody Potter. I'm a freak."

"Aren't conjoined twins usually celebrated in the magical world?" Harry asked, confused. "Because they've generally got more magic than non-conjoined witches and wizards?"

"Naturally born ones, yes," Draco answered. "But this isn't natural. For all I know, we're actually weaker now. I have no idea how much of our magic might have been depleted trying to save our lives."

"You were magically exhausted when I found you," Luc said. "But I've been giving you some Magical Restorative Drafts while you were comatose. I've taken a reading of your reserve capacity now, but I'm afraid I don't have a reading from before your accident to compare it to."

"Madam Pomfrey has one for both of them," Albus said. "They've both been patients in the Hogwarts hospital wing and that's something that shows up on the standard diagnostic tests that she performs."

"Well I'll provide copies of my notes then for her to add to their medical records," Luc said, as Albus nodded.

"I think you should rethink your stance, Draco," Albus said. "It would be unfair to your parents to let them go on thinking that you're dead. Plus, you're not the only one who can make that decision now, as Harry certainly gets a vote on whether or not he wants to let all of his friends and loved ones continue to mourn him."

The thought of all of his friends mourning for him when he wasn't dead made Harry shake his head negatively, as he said, "No, I don't want that."

"You sure?" Draco asked. "I mean just think for a moment about how they're going to react to this. The Gryffindor Golden Boy permanently fused with the Slytherin Ice Prince." Draco paused here for a moment, before he said, "You know on second thought it might be fun to go back if only to see your housemates' reactions."

Harry looked at Draco askance for a moment, before he turned pleading eyes to Luc and Albus and said, "Kill me now. Please, kill me!"

"Mr. Potter, you shouldn't joke about such things," Albus scolded.

"I'm not joking," Harry said, as he pointed at Draco and added, "Being connected to him for the rest of my life? I'm going to go crazy!"

"That's assuming you don't drive me crazy first, Potter."

Luc sighed as he turned to the headmaster. "Obviously they're going to need some time to get used to this." Albus nodded in agreement. "I would like to keep them here for a few more days to monitor their condition, but you're welcome to bring some of their family here, professor."

"Thank you," Albus said. Turning to the boys, he said, "Well, boys, eat your dinner and I'll be back in the morning."

-o-0-o-

To be continued… maybe?

And there you have Chapter One of The Battle is Joined. I have absolutely no idea how long this story will be or even if I'm going to continue it. I guess that depends on whether anybody wants updates for it.

Why did I write such a weird story? Well, I got the idea from one of my group members who submitted a pair of original characters for the Triwizard Tournament in The Seventh Olympian (check out my group for details). A pair of twins who were born as regular twins but got conjoined to each other at the age of 12 due to a freak apparition accident.

I guess the idea stuck in my head and egged on by the Muses, the rabid plot bunnies attacked me in a rather vivid dream, which is where I usually get some of my best material. Not saying this is it, per se, but since today is Evil Author's Day and I think this pretty much epitomizes the concept of something an evil author would do, I figured what the hell?

For anyone who might be concerned, this will be an extra story that will not take up a place on my update schedule (the 1st and 15th of each month). If this does get updated, it'll be as an extra chapter in addition to one of my other stories.

French translations in this story were done by Google Translate, so any mistakes are Google's fault. Although when I translated the French back into English, with the possible exception of a word or two being different (but meaning essentially the same thing), it was still pretty much exactly what I had written in English. Here's a list for you of the translations, plus what I originally wrote before translating it:

"_**Vous n'êtes pas fou, car vous portez la même paire."/**__**"You are not crazy because you are wearing the same pair."**_

"_**Bien mieux,"/"Much better,"**_

"_**Je suis content de voir que vous êtes tous les deux enfin réveillés, même si j'espère que tomber du lit n'a pas rouvert vos blessures."/**__**"I'm glad to see you both are finally awake, although I hope falling out of bed didn't reopen your wounds."**_

"_**Qui êtes-vous et où suis-je?"/**_ _**"Who are you and where am I?"**_

Questions? Comments? Suggestions? I love hearing from my readers, so feel free to contact me in a review, by email (Gmail: jaycolin25), my LiveJournal (JayColin), my group: (slash) g (slash) storiesbyjayson, or on Twitter JVascardi. Alternatively, you can also contact me via Skype (text messaging only) at . Also, don't forget to check out my Wiki: .com, for character profiles and story guides.


	2. Draco's Not Dead

The Battle is Joined

By J.C. Vascardi

-o-0-o-

Disclaimer: All characters and places featured in this story that relates to Harry Potter are the property of J.K. Rowling, various publishers, and Warner Brothers. I'm not profiting on this story and it is not my intent to infringe on anyone's copyright or trademark. The only things about this story that I own are the characters and storylines not featured in the books or other media.

-o-0-o-

Chapter Two:

Draco's Not Dead

-o-0-o-

Stepping out of the fireplace and back into his office, Dumbledore was in a much better mood than he had been in days. Leaving the Floo connection to Luc and Colette's cottage open, Albus, with a spring in his step that belied his advanced age, turned and walked towards his desk. Smiling at his ever-present familiar, he said, "Fawkes, could you fetch Madam Pomfrey here immediately?"

The phoenix nodded and disappeared in a flash of flames. Dumbledore had just taken a seat behind his desk when Fawkes flashed back into the room with a somewhat disgruntled looking Hospital Matron.

"Albus! What is the meaning of this?" Poppy asked her hands on her hips. "I was in the middle of doing some important filing when Fawkes flashed in and abducted me."

"I apologize, dear lady," Albus said, as Fawkes landed on his perch and sung a few notes which could only be described as mischievous. "But I have some extremely good news."

"Well, what is it then? Merlin knows I could certainly use some, as losing two students in the same week, when school isn't even in session, hasn't done my mood any favors."

A smiling Albus said, "Perhaps you should sit down. It is good news, but surprising enough that you'll probably want to be sitting."

Poppy raised an eyebrow at the headmaster but complied as she moved over to sit in one of the chairs in front of his desk, looking at him expectantly once she had.

"I won't beat around the bush," Albus said. "Poppy, we haven't lost two students."

"What?"

"Draco Malfoy and Harry Potter are alive."

Poppy looked confused as she shook her head and said, "Albus, that's not possible. Nobody could survive losing as much as those poor boys lost. The portion of torso connected to what was identified as Draco's arm contained his heart for pity sake!"

"I know it seems impossible to believe, Poppy, but I just saw them with my own eyes."

"How?"

"Well, it seems we were wrong about the cause of their injuries," Albus explained. "It wasn't the Death Eaters, but Draco's inadvisable attempt to Apparate, with Harry hanging onto him that caused them."

"You're saying they splinched and left behind what we found?" Poppy asked as Albus nodded his head. "That still doesn't make any sense, Albus. Draco couldn't possibly live without his heart, nor could Harry without his liver and kidneys."

"You're right, of course," Albus said with a smile. "Unless, that is their magic, in a last-ditch effort to save their lives, reached out and fused what was left together."

Poppy was quiet for a moment, before she asked, clearly confused, "Are you saying that they're conjoined twins now?"

Albus nodded. "Hard to believe, I know. But I swear on the memory of Ariana that I saw them both not twenty minutes ago. Draco Apparated them to Mont Calais in France, the wizarding village near the Malfoy's French chateau. They've been comatose ever since and in the care of Luc Flamel."

"Luc Flamel?" Poppy asked. "He's practically a legend in the field of healing."

Albus grinned. "Well, I imagine that's to be expected when you're 594 years old. Not that he looks a day over 20 thanks to the Elixir of Life."

"That whole family is enough to make a person jealous," Poppy said, as she noticed the glowing green flames in the fireplace and asked, "Is that?"

"It is," Albus answered. "An open Floo connection to Luc and Colette's cottage. I asked if I could leave it open for you to come through since you've treated them both in the past and have their complete medical histories on file. Luc didn't have access to them, as he didn't even know who they were until they woke up a couple of hours ago."

Poppy smiled as she stood up. "You were right, Albus, your news was extremely good."

Pulling out her wand, Poppy summoned both Draco's and Harry's medical files from her office and tucked them away in her apron pocket before walking over to the fireplace and stepping into the green flames.

Albus remained silent for a moment before he stood up and silently motioned for Fawkes to flash him out to the edge of the Hogwarts wards.

-o-0-o-

About two minutes later, Albus appeared in the Apparition Chamber at Malfoy Manor. He had a feeling that given their understandable grief over the loss of their son and the fact that they were in the midst of putting the final touches on his funeral that Lucius and Narcissa wouldn't have come to Hogwarts if he'd asked them to. So he decided to go to them.

He was met by a house-elf who showed him into the Drawing Room, telling him to have a seat while he fetched the master and mistress. As Albus sat down, he couldn't help but flashback to his last visit to Malfoy Manor, only six days ago, three days after the World Cup.

-o-0-o-

"Dumbledore," Lucius said, as he and Narcissa entered the room. "I hope this is important because you're taking us away from the search for our son."

"There's no easy way to say this," Albus said. "But I have reason to believe that Draco has passed away."

Narcissa's eyes widened with shock, as she demanded, "What reason? You're mad!"

"The Ministry has been keeping this under wraps," Albus said. "As they didn't want to release any information about it to the press and potentially cause a panic. At least until they could identify the victims."

"Victims?" Lucius asked.

"The morning after the World Cup," Albus answered. "When the Aurors were going over the grounds trying to find any clues, I'm afraid they made a rather grisly discovery. They found two severed legs, a right and a left, along with two severed arms that were still attached to roughly a third of the torso of their former owners."

Narcissa raised her hand to her mouth and winced at the imagery, as Lucius asked, "Are you saying one of them is our son?"

"I'm afraid so, Lucius," Albus replied. "A Chinese Master Healer who'd attended the World Cup lent his services to the Ministry to see if he could help to identify the remains. He's a world-renowned healer and pathologist, who has lent his considerable talents not only to the Chinese Ministry but several other ministries all over the world. His credentials are beyond reproach."

"And he identified our Draco as one of… as one of…" Narcissa said, unable to say the word victim, as she didn't want to believe that her precious baby boy was dead.

Albus nodded gravely. "I'm afraid so. He was able to pick up enough residual magic in the right arm to perform a magical signature test and compare it with the Ministry's records. It was a perfect match for Draco."

"No," Lucius said, as his normally cool and aristocratic mask slipped ever so slightly. "It's possible to survive without an arm and a leg. Losing them doesn't mean that Draco is dead."

"I'm afraid that isn't all he lost," Albus said. "As I said earlier, the arms were still connected to a portion of their late owner's torsos. I'm afraid the torso connected to the arm that has been positively identified as Draco's contained some internal organs which it would be impossible for him to live without… including his heart."

Narcissa shrieked at that, as tears formed in her eyes, as she practically screamed, "Oh Gods, no! Not my baby! NO!"

Lucius's mask broke completely as he wrapped his arms around his now sobbing wife. His face was full of sorrow and Albus could see him fighting back tears of his own. It was a battle that he ultimately did not win, as Albus could see a single tear form up at the corners of both of the normally stoic Lord Malfoy's eyes and fall, running down his cheeks, before he turned his head away from Albus's line of sight.

Albus remained silent for several moments, as the couple sitting on the settee across from him attempted to console each other. Albus had never had children of his own so he couldn't even begin to imagine the kind of pain that they were no doubt feeling. He had lost people close to him including his parents and sister, but he knew that for a parent to lose their child was one of the worse possible pains that no parent should ever have to go through.

When Narcissa's sobs died down to a quiet whimper and Lucius got his emotions in check, he turned his face back to the headmaster and said, "Thank you for telling us, Dumbledore."

"You're welcome, Lucius, although this is news that I dearly wish I hadn't had to share, as Draco's parents you had the right to know." Albus sighed and said, "The Ministry is holding his remains, you'll have to sign for them, of course, but…" he trailed off, before he said, "You both have my deepest and most heartfelt condolences on your loss."

-o-0-o-

"Dumbledore," Lucius said as he and Narcissa once again entered their Drawing Room to find the aged Headmaster of Hogwarts waiting for them. "Two visits in a single week, this is quickly becoming strange, seeing as how before this week I could previously count on only one finger how many times you'd come here in over thirty years."

"Indeed, Lucius," Albus said. "This time, however, I'm happy to say that I'm bringing you good news."

"Well that will be a pleasant change from last time," Narcissa commented, as she and Lucius took a seat on the settee across from the headmaster. "Let's hear it."

"Did you happen to see the Prophet this morning?" Albus asked.

Lucius nodded. "If you're referring to whether or not I saw that the Potter boy is dead, then yes, I saw it."

"He was the other victim whose remains were found near Draco's."

"I'm not hearing the good news," Narcissa said.

"Well, the good news requires a little bit of explanation to make sense."

Lucius sighed. "Make it quick then, Dumbledore, we have funeral arrangements to get back to."

Albus nodded. "Well, the short version is that the Ministry was wrong about the cause of both Harry's and Draco's deaths… in fact, they were wrong about their deaths."

Narcissa's head whipped up at that, as she asked, "What? My baby isn't dead?"

"Dumbledore is this some kind of cruel joke?" Lucius asked.

"I assure you, Lucius, I am not joking," Albus answered. "On the night in question, it would seem that Harry and Draco got into a physical altercation and Draco made the very inadvisable decision to get away from Harry by Apparating. Only, because they were still touching at the time, Harry got caught in what ended up being a spectacular failure on Draco's part."

"You're saying that their injuries were because Draco splinched them?" Narcissa asked.

"Precisely," Albus said. "I'm not exactly sure how or why, but they left behind the portions of their bodies that were found here, while the rest of them ended up about a mile outside of Mont Calais, France."

Shaking his head, Lucius said, "While I'm happy to know where the rest of my son's remains are so that they can be interred in the family crypt, I fail to see why you seem to be implying that Draco is still alive. When we claimed his remains, we saw for ourselves that both his heart and lungs were still in the portion of his chest that was found at the Cup site. As much as I wish otherwise, he couldn't possibly have survived that."

"Normally you would be correct, Lucius, but magic can work in mysterious ways and make things possible that normally would not be."

"Get to the point, old man," Lucius said.

"Draco is alive," Albus said. "I saw him with my own eyes an hour ago. Both he and Harry were comatose and unidentified John Does in the care of Luc Flamel and his wife for the last nine days, until they woke up this evening."

"How could Draco possibly survive without his heart and lungs?"

"Well, Narcissa, as I said, magic can do a lot of strange and wondrous things. Including healing the injuries that Draco and Harry sustained that would have been fatal in most cases, but they were saved from death due to their close proximity at the time of the accident."

"I don't understand," Lucius said. His mask was still firmly in place, although his voice did hold a rather obvious hint of confusion.

"In a last-ditch effort to save them both, Draco's magic locked on to Harry's magic and vice versa, fusing them together in such a way that they can share what they didn't leave behind at the Cup site."

"Come again?" Narcissa asked.

"Your son is alive, Narcissa," Albus said. "He now shares everything below his neck with Harry Potter, but he's alive."

"You mean they're conjoined twins?" Lucius asked.

"Yes, they are," Albus confirmed. "I'm afraid their new circumstances are permanent, not only because their magical cores have fused together along with their bodies, but what they left behind is no longer viable to support life. So, Draco needs Harry's heart to pump his blood and his lungs to breathe for him, just as much as Harry now needs Draco's liver and kidneys to filter his blood."

Both Malfoys were quiet for a few minutes, leading to Dumbledore saying, "I sent Madam Pomfrey to check on them after I returned to Hogwarts from my own visit to France this evening. She has Harry's and Draco's medical records, which Luc didn't previously have due to not knowing who they were until they regained consciousness."

"I want to see him," Narcissa said. "Take me to my baby."

Albus smiled. "If I may use your Floo?"

Lucius looked a little out of it, as he tried to absorb everything he'd just learned, but still had the presence of mind to gesture to the fireplace and say, "The powder is in the blue and gold Fabergé egg on the mantle."

Albus nodded, before he stood, and flicked his wand at the fireplace to start a fire since the Malfoys only lit the fire this time of year if they were actually using the Floo. A moment later, he'd threw a pinch of powder into the flames, stuck his head in for a quick conversation, before pulling out and saying, "Colette Flamel says you're both welcome to come through whenever you're ready."

Narcissa practically leaped off the settee and ran for the fireplace, not even pausing to look back and notice that her husband was still seated as she stepped into the flames and was whisked away.

"Lucius?" Albus asked.

Shaking his head, Lucius stood and said, "Well, I suppose I should go. You'll forgive me if I'm feeling a little overwhelmed right now."

"Totally understandable under the circumstances."

Lucius nodded before he stepped through the flames. Once he was through, Dumbledore closed the connection to the Flamel cottage and opened the Floo back to his office at Hogwarts. He still had a few other people to share the good news with.

-o-0-o-

Meanwhile, at Luc and Colette Flamel's cottage in France, Harry and Draco were redoing the buttons on their pajama top, as Poppy Pomfrey had just finished changing their bandages. Luc had used magic to staunch the bleeding and seal the cuts but had then applied raw dittany to the cuts and bandaged them over. They were healing well, but because they had been particularly deep, it would take a few days for them to fully heal.

Draco had been particularly distressed to hear that they would likely leave a permanent scar. Harry was a bit surprised that Draco was so averse to it since the scar was vaguely 'S' shaped.

That didn't appease Draco, however, since he didn't want his skin to be permanently marred by something so huge and unsightly as a scar that went from where his right shoulder joined with Harry's left shoulder, curving down around their chest and abdomen, all the way down to their crotch where it went between their cocks, testicles, and legs before it disappeared into their arse crack. The fact that it also went over their now joined shoulders and followed a similar path down their back just made it that much worse.

"I'll talk to Severus when I get back to Hogwarts," Poppy said. "I'll see if he's got any suggestions for a Scar Removal Potion."

Seeing Draco's eyes light up, Poppy shook her head and said, "Now, I don't want you to get your hopes up, Mr. Malfoy, as I don't know if it'll work due to the highly magical nature of this particular scar. I tried every concentration of the potion that Severus could brew on Harry's forehead when he was a first-year, and as you can see, it didn't work."

"It's also possible that it'll disappear on its own, given enough time," Luc said from the table where Harry and Draco had eaten their dinner and where he was now reading through their medical records so that he could compare his observations post-accident to Poppy's pre-accident observations.

"Of course, it would probably also help if you'd get some sun, Mr. Malfoy," Poppy said. "The scarring is less visible against Mr. Potter's suntanned skin, but is starkly visible against your pale skin."

"Well, once the bandages come off," Harry said, "we'll do just that."

"Excuse me?" Draco asked. "Since when do you get to make decisions for me, Potter?"

"Since you splinched us and fused us together, Draco," Harry said. Shaking his head, he added, "As much as I abhor it, you're a part of me now, which means that everything I do, you do. So, when I go out to get some sun, you don't really have a choice but to come with."

Draco was silent, so Harry continued. "When I got out for my morning run, guess what? You're coming too. We also need to work on your physique because you look downright puny next to me."

"Puny?!" Draco exclaimed. "Who are you calling puny?"

"You, Draco," Harry said. "Or have you failed to notice that my arm and leg are near twice the size of yours since your muscle mass is nearly non-existent?"

Before Draco could say a word, Luc looked up from the records and said, "Some exercise and weight-training would do you good, Mr. Malfoy. The disproportionate dimensions of your arm and leg in comparison to Mr. Potter's is not going to do your equilibrium any favors. You two have enough to deal with getting used to only controlling one leg each, without making things even harder for yourself."

"Well, Potter can just drop some muscle mass," Draco said. "Then everything will be fine."

Shaking her head, Poppy said, "Sorry, Mr. Malfoy, but Luc and Mr. Potter are right. You gaining muscle mass is a far better solution than Mr. Potter losing it. I assure you he's actually quite healthy and there are magical benefits to physical fitness, in that the fitter you are, the easier it is to draw on your magic. Not to mention making it easier to dodge incoming spell fire if necessary."

As she put her wand away, Poppy added, "Honestly, I've been lobbying Professor Dumbledore for a physical education class at Hogwarts for over two decades now, but the Board of Governors keeps shooting it down because of pressure from the purebloods."

Draco looked sulky but refrained from saying anything, so Luc said, "Besides which, you should actually be very happy that Mr. Potter has taken such good care of his body and gotten into such good shape."

"Why?" Draco asked. Honestly, it was just one more thing for him to resent Harry for. He'd been so scrawny and painfully thin when they first started school, but that didn't last long.

He wasn't sure what had happened, but by the end of that year, he'd filled out and outgrown the scrawniness. And then over the course of second and third year, Potter had kept it up until he'd reached his current level of fitness which Draco, while he would never admit it aloud, had found to be kind of sexy. Of course, sharing a body with Potter had killed those thoughts pretty quickly because he wasn't going to fantasize about somebody that he literally shared skin and bones with.

"Because from these records, Mr. Malfoy?" Luc asked. "I can see that it's actually Mr. Potter's heart that's pumping your blood and his lungs that are breathing for you… you lost yours in the splinching."

Draco's eyes widened at that, as Luc added, "And according to this, I'm not entirely sure that if that was reversed, Draco, that your heart and lungs could have handled the strain of working for both you and Mr. Potter. Fortunately, for you, as he's kept himself far fitter than you his organs can handle the added stress."

A knock on the door drew everyone's attention to it, as it opened enough for Colette to poke her head in and say, "Mr. Malfoy, your parents just arrived."

Draco groaned. He still wasn't sure about letting his parents know that he was still alive. He was afraid that they wouldn't be able to accept him as he now was. He himself was having a problem accepting it, after all, so how could his parents possibly not have the same problem? He didn't think he could handle it if he saw any trace of disappointment or non-acceptance in their eyes.

"You might want to pull those up," Poppy said, motioning towards the general vicinity of Draco's and Harry's midsection. They were still a bit wobbly on their feet and had sat down to button their pajama top, but their bottoms were still down around their knees.

Harry stood up, or tried to, as once again, Draco wasn't cooperating, causing him to groan and say, "Draco! Come on and work with me here. I can't stand up on my own and we have to stand so we can pull our pajama bottoms up. I don't know if you care if they see yours, but I could really do without your Mum and Dad seeing my bits."

Draco blushed at that, but Harry's admonishment got him moving, as they stood up and pulled their bottoms up. It took them a minute to navigate tying the drawstrings since they had to cooperate to tie them, but thankfully, Colette was keeping the elder Malfoys out until the boys were decent.

Of course, unbeknownst to the boys, Lucius and Narcissa heard Harry's comment and both shared a raised eyebrow.

Once the boys had sat back down, Luc nodded at Colette and said, "Its okay, ma chérie, they're decent now."

Colette nodded, before opening the door wider and stepping out of the way for the elder Malfoys. Narcissa was first through the door, followed a moment later by Lucius. Both of them stopped and just looked at Draco for a moment, taking in how their son had obviously changed since the last time they'd seen him.

"Hello, mother, father," Draco said, in a very formal sounding tone.

Harry gave him a bit of a weird look because while it was true that he'd never had much of a relationship with his own parents since they'd died when he was so young, he couldn't imagine ever talking to them in such a formal tone. To Harry, Draco's tone sounded more appropriate for a complete stranger that you'd only just met.

Draco's greeting, however, seemed to trigger something in Narcissa who crossed the room in what seemed liked two steps as she threw her arms around both Draco and Harry and lifted them into a standing position as she planted a kiss on Draco's forehead.

The movement had certainly caught Harry off guard since this kind of affection from a parent was another thing he had very little experience with since his aunt and uncle would sooner hug a porcupine than him. Logically, he knew that the affection was for Draco and that Narcissa had no choice but to include him because of their new circumstances, but that didn't mean a part of him couldn't let himself enjoy it.

Draco moved his arm around his mother to hug her back, while Harry opted to leave his arm at his side, as he felt that it would be presumptuous of him to hug Narcissa, considering that he'd only just met her for the first time the day of the World Cup. This, of course, had him feeling a bit uncomfortable, but he supposed it was a feeling he'd have to get used to, along with so many other things now that he and Draco were so close.

Pulling back and looking Draco directly in the eyes, Narcissa smiled and said, "Oh mon petit dragon, I can't tell you how overjoyed I am to see you. When I thought you were dead, I was nearly inconsolable from missing you. I love you."

"I love you too, Mum," Draco said in a warmer tone now, as he smiled at his mother. He'd really worried when she and his father had stayed back and just stared at him and Harry for a minute, but so far she seemed to be okay with his new addition. At least, the only thing he could see in her eyes was love, so that helped.

Dropping the arm that was encircling Harry's side of their body, Narcissa turned to lock eyes with Harry and nodded to him, saying in a somewhat cooler tone, "Good evening, Mr. Potter."

Harry inclined his head and politely said, "Good evening, Lady Malfoy."

Narcissa frowned slightly, before she said, "I'm sorry, but may I call you Harry? It seems very strange to call you Mr. Potter when you and my son are now so undeniably close."

"Of course, Lady Malfoy, if you prefer that, you may."

"Thank you, Harry," Narcissa said with an amiable nod. "You may call me Narcissa, as Lady Malfoy seems a little too formal for my son's literal other half."

"As you wish, Narcissa," Harry said, as she stepped aside and Lucius stepped up.

Draco held out his hand and said, "Father."

Lucius took Draco's hand, but rather than shaking it, he pulled him forward and gave him a one-armed hug, being careful to only hug Draco's side of their body and not Harry's. When Lucius let go of Draco, he took a step back, turned to Harry and simply nodded his head, as he said, "Mr. Potter."

"Lord Malfoy," Harry said, just as coolly as the Malfoy patriarch had said it. Harry wasn't surprised, honestly, because he and Lucius had not exactly had the best of relationship up until now, so it was no doubt awkward for him to interact with Harry now. Of course, Harry understood that awkwardness all too well, since he was feeling it himself.

Turning away to face Luc, Lucius said, "Thank you, Mr. Flamel, for taking so good care of my son and his," he paused here and hesitated for a moment, before he added, "companion."

Yeah, definitely awkward. Not that Harry knew exactly what to call himself in relation to Draco now either. Two weeks ago, he would have referred to him as his nemesis or possibly even his archenemy. Now though? He knew he'd have to get over that. Not that he expected it to happen overnight, but he was stuck with him now.

"You're welcome, Lord Malfoy," Luc said. "Although it was no trouble, really. I wouldn't have become a healer if I didn't enjoy taking care of people. And it's not like your son and Mr. Potter were too difficult to care for while they were sleeping."

"Has it been harder since they woke up?" Narcissa asked.

"A bit," Luc answered. "They nearly ruptured my eardrums when both of them were screaming at the tops of their lungs earlier, but then that was right after I'd turned on the lights in the room and they got their first clear view of their new status, so I can forgive them for their very audible reaction."

Colette nodded and said, "Indeed, it's understandable, given the circumstances, I think. Waking up and finding themselves literally sharing a body was no doubt a great shock. I'm pretty sure that if I woke up one morning to find that I suddenly had a conjoined twin, I'd probably be doing a little screaming myself."

Lucius nodded and said, "Yes. Probably. So when can my son… and Mr. Potter… come home?"

"I'd like to keep them here for a few more days," Luc said. "At least until their bandages can come off."

"Bandages?" Narcissa asked.

"Yes, they have a pretty deep cut all the way down their front and back where their bodies fused together," Poppy explained. "It's healing well, but it'll probably be a few more days before the bandages don't have to be replaced."

Luc nodded. "I'd rather not take any chances with infection, as they've been through quite enough already, I think."

Picking up on what Lucius had said, in the lull that followed, Harry asked, "Come home?"

Draco rolled his eyes and said, "Yes, Potter. To Malfoy Manor, of course. Where else would I live? You didn't think I'd go live with your filthy muggle relatives did you?"

"Draco!" Narcissa admonished. "You shouldn't talk that way about Harry's relatives, not when his heart and lungs are literally keeping you alive. Apologize."

Before Draco could say a word, however, Harry shook his head and said, "Its okay, Narcissa. I'm not offended. While I don't agree with Draco's stance on muggles that he's presented in the past because I know from experience that there's plenty of decent ones," Draco scoffed at this, before Harry added, "when it comes to my relatives, Draco can call them whatever he wants."

"They're your mother's sister and her husband, correct?" Lucius asked.

Harry nodded. "Yes, Petunia Evans-Dursley, her husband, Vernon, and their son, my cousin Dudley. Honestly, Draco can call them every mean and vile word he can think of because they actually deserve it."

This garnered surprised looks from everyone in the room other than Harry and Poppy, the latter of whom looked at Harry and asked a silent question, to which he simply nodded.

"Mr. Potter's relatives were not kind to him," Poppy said. "I won't go into all the grisly details, but suffice it to say that when Mr. Potter first arrived at Hogwarts as a first-year, I was horrified by his general state of health, as he was bruised in places that couldn't be easily explained away as normal childhood injuries and he was grossly malnourished."

With a shake of her head, Poppy added, "I immediately put him on a series of powerful nutrient and vitamin potions and worked out a diet and exercise regimen designed to reverse the long-term damage that had been the result of eleven years of neglect and abuse."

Lucius maintained his normally cool and detached demeanor, but Narcissa looked horrified at the words injuries and malnourished, and looked like she was about to hex someone into oblivion at the words neglect and abuse.

Shaking her head, she then smiled and said, "Well, your plans seem to have worked well, Madam Pomfrey."

Poppy smiled and nodded. "Indeed, without my intervention, it's entirely likely that Mr. Potter would have remained underweight and below the average height for his age, as if I hadn't acted when I did, I doubt he would have gotten much taller than five-foot-five at his full height when he reached full physical maturity."

"Considering that Draco is now five-foot-eight, and still a few years from physical maturity, that would have been a bit awkward," Lucius said.

"Indeed," Poppy said. "Anyway, Mr. Potter is now five-foot-nine and everything indicates that he will probably hit six-foot-two like his father." She hesitated here, before adding, "Of course, I suppose that could change now, as I can't be sure yet what the long-term effects of the fusion with Mr. Malfoy will have."

Luc nodded. "Yes, in all of my many years of practicing magical medicine, I can't say that I've ever run into a case quite like this one."

Harry would have been confused by that statement since Luc didn't look a day over twenty, but then again, he was a Flamel. He'd said that Nicolas was one of his ancestors, but he didn't say how exactly they were related. Luc's comment did suggest to Harry, however, that he was a lot older than he looked.

"Anyway, as for where Harry and Draco live," Poppy said, "I suppose they'd have to spend at least part of the time at Malfoy Manor, for obvious reasons. Of course, I'd prefer that he never set foot at his aunt and uncle's house ever again, although until recently, Professor Dumbledore insisted that he return to the Dursleys every summer."

"Why?" Narcissa asked. "Surely you told him about their treatment of him?"

"I did," Poppy said with a nod. "However, there were other considerations."

"What kind of considerations?" Narcissa asked. "I can't imagine anything that would warrant exposing a child to a neglectful and abusive home life."

"It's something to do with blood wards, Narcissa," Harry said. "I guess because my mother willingly sacrificed herself to protect me, even in the face of being offered the chance to live by Voldemort," nearly everyone in the room save for Harry, Colette, Luc, and Lucius flinched at this, "if she'd just step aside and let him kill me, set up a powerful protection. Protection that I guess still exists through blood wards as long as I continue to spend at least a portion of every year with my mother's blood. In other words, her sister."

Everyone was quiet at this, before Harry added, "At any rate, my time with the Dursleys is over for the year anyway. The Weasleys picked me up the day before the World Cup and I was scheduled to spend the rest of the summer with them."

"Well, we can discuss living arrangements at a later date," Lucius said. His tone revealed nothing about what he was thinking or feeling, but considering the interaction between Arthur and Lucius that Harry had witnessed the summer before second year, he had a strong feeling that Lucius would not be in favor of Harry spending anytime living at The Burrow now that that meant that Draco would have to live there too.

-o-0-o-

To be continued…

And there's Ch2 of 'The Battle is Joined'. Since all of the responses I've gotten thus far were positive and I managed to finish this before midnight on the fifteenth (it's currently 57 minutes til as I write this), I figured I'd be nice and post this as a special gift to all your good people who read chapter one. I hope you found this as enjoyable as the first chapter.

Questions? Comments? Suggestions? I love hearing from my readers, so feel free to contact me in a review, by email (Gmail: jaycolin25), my LiveJournal (JayColin), my group: (slash) g (slash) storiesbyjayson, or on Twitter JVascardi. Alternatively, you can also contact me via Skype (text messaging only) at . Also, don't forget to check out my Wiki: .com.


	3. Harry's Not Dead

The Battle is Joined

By J.C. Vascardi

-o-0-o-

Disclaimer: All characters and places featured in this story that relates to Harry Potter are the property of J.K. Rowling, various publishers, and Warner Brothers. I'm not profiting on this story and it is not my intent to infringe on anyone's copyright or trademark. The only things about this story that I own are the characters and storylines not featured in the books or other media.

-o-0-o-

Chapter Three:

Harry's Not Dead

-o-0-o-

By the time that Albus arrived back at Hogwarts from Malfoy Manor, it was nearing eight o'clock at night in Scotland. Thus, while he knew that Remus, Sirius, and the Weasleys would be thrilled to know that Harry was still alive, he decided it would be best to wait until morning to share the good news.

Albus suspected that Harry and Draco were very likely already near the point of being overwhelmed as they tried to wrap their heads around their new permanent roles in each other's lives. Add to that the fact that Mont Calais was an hour ahead of Scotland, and Harry and Draco had only awoken from their nine-day comas about six hours ago, the headmaster decided it would be best to give them some more time to rest before all of Harry's friends and loved ones came calling.

So, Albus sat down at this desk and decided to get a bit more work done for the upcoming school year. Seeing as how it was now the Third of September, normally the school year would have already started. But following the attack at the World Cup, the decision was made to push back the first day of the new school year to the First of October.

The extra time would then be spent bolstering security at both Hogwarts and in Hogsmeade in order to make every effort to ensure that everyone would be safe. The fact that Hogwarts was set to host the revived Triwizard Tournament and that the delegations from Beauxbatons and Durmstrang, both spooked by the attack at the World Cup, threatened to not even show up unless the British Ministry did something to ensure their safety also played a role in the delayed start to the year.

'_**It's probably for the best,'**_ Albus thought. _**'This delay will give Harry and Draco about three and a half weeks to acclimate to their new circumstances before they have to deal with school.'**_

-o-0-o-

Back in France, Lucius and Narcissa spent about forty-five minutes with Harry and Draco until Luc, with backup from both Colette and Poppy, kicked them out. While Harry and Draco had been sleeping for the last nine days, that didn't mean that they didn't need sleep and while she didn't really want to let Draco out of her sight, Narcissa finally relented.

She would probably have stayed at the Flamel Cottage overnight, but as Harry and Draco were using Luc and Colette's only guest room that wasn't an option. As an alternative solution, however, Lucius and Narcissa opted to go over to the Malfoy Chateau for the night. Poppy left not long after, heading back to Hogwarts, at which point Luc and Colette called it a night as well.

Everyone had been gone now for about half-an-hour and Harry and Draco were lying in bed in the darkened guestroom, although neither of them was actually sleeping. Unsurprisingly, they both had a lot on their minds and were finding it hard to fall asleep.

"Draco, will you please stop squirming? You're going to make me sick."

"I'm sorry to be keeping you awake, Potter," Draco said, although his tone suggested otherwise. "I'm just finding it hard to get comfortable."

"What's wrong? Bed not soft enough for Your Spoiled Highness's pampered arse?"

Draco smirked, before he drawled, "My so-called pampered arse is now your arse too, Potter."

Harry sighed. He didn't feel like pointing out the fact that Draco wasn't entirely correct since the blond had left the right side of his arse back in England with his leg. What now made up the right side of their shared arse was all Harry's and pampered is something it had never been.

Instead, he just said, "Don't remind me." After a moment's pause, he added, "I see you've gone back to my surname. Is it so hard to use my given name?"

"I wouldn't have had a problem with calling you by your given name if you were my friend, but you turned me down."

"Really? You insist on calling me Potter because I refused to take your hand back in first year?"

Draco was quiet for a moment, before he said, "You hurt my feelings."

"Do you honestly expect me to believe that? Bruised your pride? Wounded your ego? Those I'd believe. But hurt your feelings? No."

"Is it really so hard for you to believe that I have feelings?"

"Considering that you hurt other people's feelings, mine included, as easily as you breathe, yes, I do find it hard to believe."

Shaking his head, Draco asked, "We'd only just met. How could I possibly have hurt your feelings?"

Harry was quiet for a moment, but finally said, "Well, you insulted Ron for one."

"Weasel? Really?"

"Draco, I spent the entire ride from King's Cross with Ron. He was the first friend my age that I'd ever made until then, so you insulting him and his entire family didn't exactly make me see you in a good light."

Before Draco could respond, however, Harry added, "Besides which, you're wrong. When you offered me your hand? That wasn't our first meeting."

Harry was more than a little disturbed when he realized that he could actually feel Draco screwing up his face in confusion. The blond was quiet for some time and if they were just two normal people sharing a bed, Harry might have thought that he'd fallen asleep. As it was, however, even though their minds were still separate, due to the fact that Draco's head was only six inches away, he could practically hear him wracking his brain, trying to figure out when they'd met before Hogwarts.

"Okay, Potter, I give up," Draco finally said in an exasperated tone. "When did we meet before Hogwarts?"

"In Madam Malkin's," Harry answered. "We were on fitting platforms right next to each other being fitted for our school robes. You asked why Hagrid had brought me to Diagon Alley instead of my parents and when I told you that they were dead, while you said you were sorry, you didn't sound the slightest bit sincere. You then started going on about who should and shouldn't be allowed to go to Hogwarts and you basically told me that my mother should never have been allowed at Hogwarts because she wasn't a pureblood."

Harry turned his head far enough that he could see Draco's face in profile. He looked like he was thinking about something. Finally, he said, "Okay, I remember that. I'm sorry I didn't sound sincere, Potter, I really am. But until I lost my grandfather over the summer before our second year, I didn't really have a concept for what death even was. I mean intellectually I knew what it meant for someone to be dead, but until I actually felt the pain of loss for myself, I didn't really understand it."

"Well, I guess I can understand that. Still, it doesn't excuse your prejudice towards muggleborns. Just look up my mum's grades or even ask any of our professors who all either taught her or were her classmates and they'll tell you that she was one of the most brilliant and talented witches in her year. Why should her parentage matter?"

"Because purebloods are better. Everyone knows that."

"No, Draco, everyone doesn't know that. I don't and as far as I can see the evidence doesn't support it. Hermione is a muggleborn and she's beaten you plenty of times. Both academically and physically."

Harry couldn't help but smile as he fondly remembered Hermione punching Draco in the face last year. Although, his fond memories dimmed ever so slightly when he realized that he'd never get the chance to see it again.

Seeing as how he could now feel Draco's facial expressions, he was pretty sure that if Hermione punched him now, he'd feel it too. Wanting to be sure, however, Harry reached over and flicked a finger against the side of Draco's nose.

Draco grabbed Harry's wrist a moment later and asked, "Okay, Potter, what was that for?"

"It was an experiment."

"An experiment?"

"I was fondly remembering Hermione punching you in the face. So I wanted to see whether or not I'd feel it now if she were to do it again."

"Well, at least you didn't punch me."

"I figured that a less painful test was in order, just in case."

"Ah. And?" Draco asked. Honestly, he was curious himself. He might share almost everything with Potter now, but their heads were still separate, so he himself wasn't sure if they'd both feel it, but it would be good to know.

"I felt it. I don't think it was quite the same as if somebody actually did that to my own nose, but I did feel it. Enough that I promise to try and make sure that nobody ever punches you again."

"My hero," Draco said sarcastically.

"Don't flatter yourself, Draco. My reasons are entirely selfish. If somebody punching you in the face means that I feel it then it rather quickly loses its appeal."

"I didn't know Gryffindors had any sense of self-preservation."

Harry grinned, as he decided that maybe it was time he finally shared a bit of information that would no doubt blow Draco's mind.

Turning his head more fully, Harry used his greater strength to overpower Draco who was still holding onto his wrist. Grabbing Draco's chin he turned the blond's head so that they were looking at each other in the eyes, before he said, "Well, maybe they do, maybe they don't, but the Sorting Hat wasn't actually sure that I belonged in Gryffindor… in fact, it was strongly considering a different house."

Draco rolled his eyes and said, "I'd tell you not to tell me that I'm sharing a body with a possible Hufflepuff because my heart couldn't take it, but that doesn't really work as well when it's your heart that's beating in our chest."

Harry grinned. "True and no, it wasn't considering Hufflepuff." And before Draco could say Ravenclaw, which Harry was sure would be the next one out of his mouth since he'd surely never consider the truth, Harry asked, "What color are my eyes?"

Draco looked confused for a split second before his eyes widened and he said, "No way."

Harry laughed. "Yes way, Draco, the Hat wanted to put me in Slytherin, but I convinced it not to. And if you don't believe me, well you can always ask the Hat the next time we're in Dumbledore's office. I've been there every single year so far, so I'm sure we'll end up there at some point."

"Why didn't you want to be in Slytherin?"

"Well, the Hat put you there."

"Wait, really? You didn't want to be in Slytherin because I was?"

"It was one of my reasons," Harry answered. "It wasn't the only one though. Ron had told me that every witch or wizard who'd gone bad was from Slytherin." He could see that Draco wanted to argue, but before he could, Harry added, "Of course, the kicker was that Voldemort was in Slytherin. Being in the same house as the person who murdered my parents and tried to kill me just didn't seem right."

"Must you say his name?"

Harry rolled his eyes. "Would you prefer that I call him the Dark Lord like you and all the other Slytherins seem to do? Discounting the fact that that gets rather confusing when you think about it since he's far from the only Dark Lord that's ever existed?"

"I suppose that's true, but he was the last major one, so everyone knows who you mean and it's certainly better than saying his other stupid appellations."

"On that much, we agree. Why the wizarding world loves handing out names to people with way too many damned hyphens I'll never know."

Draco grinned at that. "Well, I suppose if anyone understands having a name with too many hyphens it's you, The-Boy-Who-Lived."

Harry groaned. "Yeah, mark my words, Draco, it won't be long until someone tacks more words onto that stupid name. Something like The-Boy-Who-Lived-to-be-Fused-to-a-Death-Eater."

Taking his hand off Draco's chin and moving it up to cover the blond's mouth, he added, "Yeah, yeah, I know you're not a Death Eater. Considering that your left arm is now our left arm, I'm well aware of that. I'm only saying that somebody is probably going to say it."

Removing his hand from Draco's mouth, he added, "And you'll probably be given a name with too many damn hyphens yourself eventually simply because of your now permanent association to me."

"Oh joy," Draco said sarcastically before he yawned and added, "Night Potter."

"Good night, Draco," Harry said, as he decided to just give in to the urge to sleep, rather than think about the fact that he was going to bed with Draco Malfoy… and would be every night for the rest of his life. He'd probably have nightmares if he did and considering the waking nightmare that was now his life, peaceful, nightmare-free sleep was the best that he could hope for.

-o-0-o-

Around eight-thirty the next morning, Harry and Draco woke up to the smell of coffee and something else. They weren't sure just by the scent what it was, but it smelled delicious. Seconds after they'd managed to sit up in bed, Luc walked in and smiled.

"Good morning, boys. Sleep well?"

"About as well as can be expected, I suppose," Harry answered.

Draco was quiet for a moment, before he said, "I slept, but I wouldn't say it was well."

"Why?" Luc asked.

"I'm not used to sleeping on my back. I usually sleep on my side, but that wouldn't work very well now that there's another head on my shoulders." He looked annoyed as he added, "Or our shoulders, I guess, I don't know. This is a lot to take in."

Luc nodded. "I don't doubt it. Nobody is expecting either of you to be instantly okay with your new lot in life. True it's something that you will ultimately have no choice but to accept, but I don't think anyone can fault you for having difficulty with it for a while. Especially since it hasn't even been twenty-four hours yet since you consciously discovered your new situation."

Neither of them said anything, prompting Luc to say, "I need to change your bandages and replace the dittany, but if you'd like to take a hot bath first, you can. The bandages are charmed to be waterproof, so you needn't worry about getting them wet."

Harry and Draco agreed that a hot bath would be nice because as far as they knew, they hadn't bathed in over a week. Although they were both pretty sure that being comatose for nine days was a pretty good excuse for why they hadn't. It's not like they stunk or anything, so they assumed that Luc or Colette had used magic to keep them clean while they were out of it.

Luc had to help them into the bathroom as they were still struggling with synching up their control of their legs in order to walk any great distance. The only reason they'd managed to make it to the table to eat dinner the previous night was that it was only about three feet from the bed and they'd had large pieces of furniture that they could grab onto in order to steady themselves. Otherwise, they would very likely have fallen on their arse.

Once they were in the bathroom, Luc started the tub filling, although finding a temperature that both Harry and Draco were okay with was a bit of a challenge in and of itself. Harry, it seemed preferred a much hotter water temperature than Draco, so the result ended up being a bath that was a few degrees warmer than Draco preferred while being a few degrees cooler than Harry would have liked.

"So this is our life now," Draco commented. "Compromise everything."

"I guess so," Harry agreed. "Although, I imagine that there are some things that neither one of us is going to want to compromise on."

"Probably," Draco said before he shook his head and said, "But maybe we should just cross those bridges when we come to them."

"Works for me," Harry said, as they took a moment to quickly use the loo.

Since they both had their respective hands on their cocks as they pointed them at the toilet, they weren't surprised when their pajama bottoms slid down their legs, since previously they each would have held their cock with one hand and held their pajamas up with the other.

"I guess we're going to have to either start using suspenders," Harry said, "or get comfortable with one of us holding both for this."

Draco nodded. "As much as I'd rather you kept your hands off my cock, Potter, I guess you're probably right. Suspenders are a good option for trousers and one I suppose we will have to employ, but they'd look ridiculous with pajamas."

Harry remained quiet and simply nodded in agreement as they finished their business before Harry braced his hand on the sink so that they could carefully step out of their pajama bottoms without falling over. That done, they quickly unbuttoned their top, having gotten pretty good with that much at least, before they turned to the tub which was now full.

They were both doing their best to ignore the fact that Luc was still in the room and not be embarrassed by his presence. Until they had better control, which hopefully wouldn't take too long, they'd likely need his assistance to get in and out of the bathtub after all.

Without a word, Luc steadied them while they stepped into the tub and helped guide them down into a sitting position. Once that was done he placed a small bell on a nearby stool and said, "Wash up and when you're ready, just ring the bell and I'll help you get out."

Harry and Draco nodded but were otherwise quiet as they began washing their body, being careful around their bandages. It was definitely a new experience for them, as up until this point, neither of them had ever bathed with another person in their lives. It through both of their minds for a loop when they realized they'd be bathing together for the rest of their lives.

About twenty minutes later, they rang for Luc and he helped them get out of the tub, before casting a couple of quick-drying spells on them. He then smiled and said, "I thought you might like to put on some actual clothes, instead of spending all day in pajamas. So I raided my closet and altered some clothes for you to wear."

"Thanks," Harry said. "But we don't want to take all your clothes."

Luc laughed. "You needn't worry about that, Harry. I know I look young, but I think you more than anyone are probably aware of my family's claim to fame."

"The Philosopher's Stone," Harry said.

Draco did a double-take and asked, "Wait, the stone is real? I'd heard rumors but I never really believed them."

"It's real," Luc said. "Or more accurately, it was. Great-grandfather destroyed it back in 1992."

"Why would anybody destroy something that grants eternal life?" Draco asked. "And turns any metal it touches to gold?"

"Because Voldemort almost stole it in our first year, Draco."

Draco turned his head and looked at Harry, who couldn't help but laugh at the expression on his face. He was looking at him like Harry had suddenly sprouted a second head, which given their new circumstances was kind of ironic.

"He's dead, Potter," Draco said. "You of all people should know that. You're the one that killed him, after all."

"Draco, can we maybe have this conversation when we're not standing naked in a bathroom with our healer?"

Draco's skin flushed, as he said, "Oh, yeah, right. Good idea."

-o-0-o-

Harry and Draco wrapped a towel around their waist before Luc helped them back to their bedroom, where he deftly changed their bandages. On the bed, he'd laid out some clothes for them, after Luc assured them that he didn't mind altering some of his own clothes for them to wear until they had a chance to do some shopping.

"As I was going to say in the bathroom," Luc said, "I have more clothes than I know what to do with anyway. Like my father, I've always been something of a clotheshorse and having a few centuries to add to one's wardrobe, it's very easy for it to get out of hand."

"Just how old are you really?" Draco asked, genuinely curious.

Luc smiled. "I was born in 1400."

Harry's eyes widened. "That would make you 594 years old." Shaking his head, "Damn, you look good for your age."

Luc chuckled. "Why thank you. Seriously though the Elixir of Life freezes you at the age you were when you start drinking it. So, as long as you keep drinking it, you'll forever remain that age. I was 20, so that's why I look so young."

"With the stone destroyed though, I assume you're going to run out of Elixir eventually," Harry said.

"Yes, you're right, Harry, eventually we will," Luc confirmed. "Although when that happens, we'll just age normally from the point where we started drinking it. So, you don't need to worry, Harry, Colette and I, and the rest of my family aren't going anywhere, anytime soon."

Seeing a curious look on Harry's face, Luc smiled and said, "And yes, before you ask, great-grandfather Nicolas and great-grandmother Perenelle are both still alive. Obviously, they're both older than I am since my father is their grandson."

"Dumbledore had told me that Nicolas had enough Elixir to set his affairs in order, but I'd assumed that would mean he'd be dead sooner rather than later."

"A perfectly understandable assumption," Luc said. "Suffice it to say that after great-grandfather's six-plus centuries of life, setting his affairs in order is not something that he can do quickly."

Draco nodded. "Yeah, I would imagine it would take several years."

Luc just smiled but remained silent, before he finally said, "Anyway, I'll leave you boys to get dressed in private. I'll come back in a few minutes to help you down to the kitchen to eat, as I imagine you'd enjoy a change of scenery after over a week in the same room. You were sleeping through most of that time, but oh well."

Luc turned and left the room at this point, as Harry and Draco turned to the bed and surveyed the clothes that Luc had left out for them. They were traditional wizarding fashions which meant that to Harry's eyes they were all outdated by about a hundred-and-fifty years or so.

As they sat down on the bed and Draco grabbed the pair of underwear that had been left out for them, Harry's eyes widened in shock. Although this wasn't at the thought of wearing Luc's underwear, as he was sure that they'd been magically cleaned when Luc had altered the shirts to accommodate both Harry's and Draco's heads.

Wearing somebody else's underwear wasn't new for Harry, after all. Every single article of clothing that Harry had ever owned in his life, with the exceptions of the jumpers that Mrs. Weasley had knitted for him and his Hogwarts and Quidditch uniforms, had belonged to Dudley first. The Dursleys thought it was a waste of money to buy new things for Harry, so they just had him wear Dudley's cast-offs.

Before Harry had found out he was a wizard, whenever he'd get more of Dudley's new clothes given to him, he'd wash them several times in the hottest water he possibly could. Not only to try and shrink them a little but also to clean them. Since finding out about magic, however, Harry had become a rather dab hand at various cleaning charms that could be used to make clothing so clean as to be practically brand new.

"What the hell is that?" Harry asked as he looked at the article of clothing that Draco was holding. It was a pair of white linen shorts with a thick waistband that was probably about five inches thick with drawstrings that almost reminded him of pictures he'd seen of a woman's corset. The legs were long enough that Harry was pretty sure they'd reach down to just below the knees, where there were little strings at the bottom to tie them shut.

"They're called underwear, Potter. Surely you've heard of them. Or were you going commando all these years?"

"No, I was not going commando, Draco. Remember I grew up in the muggle world, so I was wearing muggle underwear."

Looking at the underwear in his hand, which looked perfectly normal to him because it's the same style he'd been wearing his entire life, he asked, "Are they that different?"

Harry laughed. "Calling them the same would be like saying that there's absolutely no difference between an apple and a watermelon. Sure, they're both fruits, but I think you'll agree that beyond that, they are not the same."

Draco nodded, before asking, "So, did muggles ever wear this kind of underwear?"

"Yes, but they went out of style about a hundred or more years ago." With a sigh and a shake of his head, Harry added, "I guess I've got no choice but to wear them since it's what we've got for the moment. But, we're definitely going to have to go shopping."

"Well, Merlin knows that I'll never pass up a chance to go shopping, but I'm not sure about wearing muggle underwear, Potter."

"Trust me, if you try it, you'll never want to wear these things again. Hell, you'll probably want to set fire to every pair you've ever owned."

"We'll see," Draco drawled, not actually believing that for a moment before he shook his head and asked, "Now, shall we get dressed so that we can find out what smells so good?"

Harry sighed, "Yeah, I can deal with that."

-o-0-o-

After Luc helped Harry and Draco down the stairs and got them situated at the kitchen table, they noted that Colette had put out a pretty impressive continental breakfast featuring a variety of chopped fruit, yogurt, and cereal, along with freshly-baked baguettes, croissants, and chocolate croissants. The latter three being the smell that both Harry and Draco had smelled from upstairs.

"Good morning," Harry said to Colette with a smile, before he and Draco each grabbed a couple of the items on the table that looked good, keeping in mind that they should each eat a bit less than what they normally would seeing as how they shared a stomach now.

"Can I get you boys anything to drink?" Colette asked.

"Would it be too much to ask for chocolate chaud?" Draco asked, with a hopeful look in his eye.

Colette smiled. "Of course not, Draco. Luc is a chocoholic, so I've already got it made. It's also why there are more chocolate croissants on the table than there are regular ones." With a grin, she added, "After over 570 years of marriage, I know what my husband likes."

As she said this she came over to the table with a silver coffee pot and poured some of the contents into the empty cup next to Luc's plate, which was clearly was not coffee. Luc's smile was like that of a kid in a candy store.

Harry watched and then asked, "I don't speak French, but is that hot chocolate?"

"Yes, Harry, it is," Colette said as she began filling a cup for Draco. "Would you like some or did you want something else?"

"No, that's fine, I'll take some," Harry answered. "I like chocolate just as much as the next person. Not sure I'd call myself a chocoholic, but I do like it."

"I am a chocoholic," Draco said.

Harry laughed. "Really? I never would have guessed it from the fact that your Mum sends you sweets practically every week, oftentimes more than once."

Draco shrugged his shoulder and said, "She and I both know what I like."

"I don't have a problem with that, Draco," Harry said. "As long as you don't eat so much of it that we get a stomach ache or get fat, then I don't mind you enjoying it. Especially if you share."

"I'll think about it, Potter," Draco responded. "Although, seeing as how we already share a body and several internal organs, I'm inclined to think that we share enough."

"Can't really argue there," Harry said. "I think I can safely speak for both of us when I say that we now share more with each other than either of us ever wanted to."

"Spot on, Potter," Draco said, as he took a sip of his drink, as Harry did the same. Draco smiled as he took the cup from his mouth and said, "Delicious."

Harry cocked his head a little and said, "It's not as sweet as I'm used to back home, but it's good. Honestly, I always thought what I'd drank back home was a little too sweet."

Silence fell over the table at this point, as Harry, Draco, and the Flamels concentrated on eating. After a few minutes, however, Draco asked, "So, Potter, we're fully clothed now. Can we continue the conversation we started earlier?"

"You mean about Voldemort?" Harry asked and Draco flinched.

Harry noted that neither Luc nor Colette flinched even the smallest bit. Luc must have caught on to what Harry was thinking because he said, "Colette and I have lived through the rise and fall of so many dark lords in our lives, that Voldemort just doesn't scare us the way he scares others."

Colette nodded. "Yes, honestly, here on the continent, Voldemort still plays second-fiddle to Grindelwald in most people's eyes, since Voldemort's activities never really went past the borders of Britain and Ireland. Unlike Grindelwald who operated on a far more global scale."

"Yes and for over two decades longer than Voldemort," Luc added.

Draco flinched each time the Dark Lord's name was mentioned, and privately, he was glad that he happened to be sick with a stomach bug that day last year when Professor Lupin was teaching the students about boggarts and having all of them face one. As he was sure he would have been persona non grata in Slytherin house if his classmates had seen that his boggart would have, he was sure, taken the form of the Dark Lord.

Theo Nott had asked him later that day what Draco thought his boggart would have been if he had been in class to face it. Draco, of course, lied through his teeth and said that his greatest fear was his Mum cutting off his chocolate supply. Since Theo was a fellow chocoholic, he agreed whole-heartedly that that would be horrible and that was the end of it.

Being able to feel it each time Draco flinched, Harry sighed and said, "Fine, Draco, if you don't want to call him by his name, then we can refer to him as Tom."

Draco screwed his face up in confusion as he asked, "Why Tom?"

Shaking his head, Harry said, "You don't think his mother named him Voldemort do you?" Draco flinched again. "His real name is Tom Marvolo Riddle. It's an anagram, so rearrange the letters and it literally spells 'I am Lord V.'"

Normally, Harry would have said the full name but he was tired of Draco's flinching. He was sick to death of most people flinching when he said the name and that was when he was only watching it happen. It was way worse when somebody flinched at the name and Harry could physically feel the flinch.

"How do you know this?" Draco asked.

"He told me himself, showed me, in fact," Harry said and quickly added, "And before you say that he's dead, Draco, no he isn't. I've faced him twice since coming to Hogwarts. Once at the end of first year and then again at the end of second year."

"How? He died…" Draco said.

"His body died, but his spirit is still around," Harry clarified. "He was possessing Professor Quirrell back in first year. That's why you never saw him without his turban... it hid the fact that he literally had Tom's face on the back of his bald head."

Thinking back to first-year and Professor Quirrell, Draco was quiet for a moment, before he said, "Wait didn't Weasel's brothers charm snowballs to follow Quirrell around and hit him in the back of the head?"

Luc and Colette both sniggered at that, considering what Harry had just said, as Harry nodded. "Yes, Fred and George did do that. When I remembered over the summer, I had the Potter family steward buy them each hundred galleon gift certificates for both Zonko's and Gambol & Jape's. I figured that repeatedly hitting Tom in the face with snowballs deserved a major reward, even if they didn't know they were doing it at the time."

"Huh," Draco said. "Well, they've just gone up several pegs in my book. Enough so that I'll refrain from calling them Weasel's brothers from now on and just call them the Weasley twins."

"You shouldn't call anybody Weasel, Mr. Malfoy," Albus said, as the flames in the fireplace flared and the headmaster stepped out. With a smile, he said, "Good morning, all."

"Good morning, Professor," Luc said with a nod of his head since Albus had never been his headmaster. Like his father before him, Luc did actually go to Hogwarts… but it was centuries before Dumbledore was even born.

"We were just having breakfast," Colette said. "Please have a seat," as she motioned towards an empty chair. "Can I get you anything, Professor?"

"Some tea with lemon, if you have it," Albus said, as he took a seat.

Colette nodded, before flicking her wand at the stove and making one of the burners turn on under a tea kettle that was already on the stove. A moment later, a circular rack with twelve small jars with clamp lids containing various types of tea leaves floated over to the table next to the headmaster.

"Thank you, Colette," Albus said as he picked one of the blends, before snagging himself a couple of pieces of sliced baguette. He pulled out his wand and with a muttered spell, they were toasted. This made him smile and say, "Ah that reminds me. I've got something for you boys."

At this, he pulled something from his pocket which made Harry's and Draco's eyes widen with happiness. It was their wands.

"The Ministry was holding these," Albus said, as he handed them over. "Especially yours, Harry."

"Why mine?"

"Because it was your wand that cast the Dark Mark," Albus said.

"What?!" Draco asked, clearly angry, as he almost spilled his hot chocolate. "Potter! You tackled me and accused me of casting it which is what made me try to Apparate and it was you who cast it all along?"

"I did no such thing, Draco!"

"Calm yourself, Mr. Malfoy," Albus said. "Harry is telling the truth. Ron and Hermione confirmed that Harry had lost his wand earlier in the evening. As it turns out it was actually a house-elf named Winky who cast it, formerly in the employ of Bartemius Crouch, Sr., the head of the Department of International Magical Cooperation at the Ministry."

"A house-elf? Really?" Draco asked. "I'm sharing a body with Potter for the rest of my life because of a house-elf?"

"No, Mr. Malfoy," Luc said. "You're sharing a body with Mr. Potter for the rest of your life because you were stupid enough to try to apparate at fourteen, with no license, no training, and nowhere near the appropriate level of concentration."

In talking with the boys last night before Lucius and Narcissa arrived, Poppy and Luc had determined that Draco had wanted to get away from Potter so badly that when he attempted to Apparate he didn't have a clear picture in his head of Malfoy Manor, which had been his intended destination and instead had a fleeting thought of the Malfoy Chateau. They'd ended up where they did between the village and the chateau because Harry wasn't keyed in to the chateau's wards, so they refused him entry and by virtue of them sharing a body by that point, Draco as well.

"Yes, I'm afraid you've got nobody to blame but yourself, Mr. Malfoy," Albus said. "Well, mostly, as Harry does shoulder at least some of the blame," as he gave Harry a look over the tops of his spectacles, "since he shouldn't have jumped to conclusions and tackled you, but it was still you that caused your current predicament by doing something you had no business even attempting."

"Let this be a very important lesson to you, boys," Colette said. "All magic has consequences, especially when you're not concentrating on what you're doing while trying to use it. So, don't ever attempt to apparate again without proper training, either of you."

"Considering what happened the first time," Harry said, "I'm not sure I even want to attempt to do it. I mean, would it even be safe for Draco and me to do it? I mean considering that we do still have two minds. Wouldn't we get torn apart and die if we were both thinking of different destinations?"

"Yes, most likely," Luc said. "Which is why when you're old enough, if you do learn how to apparate, you'd better either just let one of you handle it for both of you, or make it very clear beforehand where you want to go and then make sure you both have a very clear picture in mind so you both end up in the same place."

Shaking his head, Draco said, "I think I'm with Potter. We can just make do with the Floo and Portkeys. Or even the bloody Knight Bus. I think this has turned me off of apparition forever."

"I can't say that I blame you," Albus said. "Now, why don't you test your wands? Given your new circumstances, I want to see if they still work properly. Especially yours, Mr. Malfoy, because correct me if I'm wrong, but you used to use your right hand for spellcasting, correct?"

Draco nodded. "Yes, Professor, I did. I'm ambidextrous, so I can write with both hands, but when it came to magic, I always used my right hand."

Grasping his wand in his left hand, Draco moved his wand in a circle and said, "_**Orchideous!**_"

The spell did summon a bouquet of flowers, as it was supposed to, but they were all brown, dry, and shriveled. Honestly, they looked as if they hadn't gotten any water since before Draco was even born.

Draco's face fell, as Albus said, "Well, that certainly didn't go as intended. Although, it's possible that your wand has bonded to your right hand and just doesn't want to respond in your left. Or it could be that you now sharing a body and magical core with Harry has confused your wand enough that it doesn't respond to you any longer. Harry? Same spell?"

Doing the same movement that Draco had, Harry said, "_**Orchideous!**_"

This time, however, the result was quite different, as a lovely bouquet of white lilies, pink carnations, and bright yellow daisies popped out of the tip of Harry's wand. They looked freshly picked and smelled quite nice.

"Hmm, it looks like you may have to get a new wand, Mr. Malfoy," Colette said. "Your wand just doesn't seem like it wants to work with your left hand."

Not wanting to give up, Draco concentrated hard and tried again… with similar results. In fact, the flowers looked even deader than the first bunch, if that was possible.

Draco looked horrified, but tried once more, this time saying, "_**Avis!**_" Like with the flowers, the spell did do what it was supposed to do and summoned a flock of birds, who all promptly fell to the ground, since they were all dead.

"Eww," Luc said, as he took out his wand and vanished the birds and bouquets. "I think that's enough for now, Mr. Malfoy."

"What if Potter casts the spell with my wand?" Draco asked.

Harry shrugged his shoulder, put his wand on the table, and took Draco's wand from him. A moment later, a small flock of pretty yellow finches was flying around his head and chirping merrily.

Before anyone could say anything, Draco grabbed Harry's wand from the table and tried the flower summoning spell again. He sighed in relief when he saw that he was still able to get good results, as he managed to summon a bouquet of red roses. Perhaps not as good as he had in the past, but good since he was using somebody else's wand.

"Well, it would seem that the wand is fine, it just doesn't like the switch from one hand to the other," Albus said. "I'm by no means an expert in wand lore, but I know that they can be extremely temperamental. So it looks like we'll definitely have to get you a new wand before school starts, Mr. Malfoy."

Harry looked confused at this as he took his wand back from Draco and said, "Professor? Hasn't school already started? I mean the World Cup was on the 25th of August. Draco and I were both comatose for nine days. Today's the 4th of September isn't it?"

Albus nodded. "Indeed, Harry it is. However, due to the attack on the Cup, the Ministry and Hogwarts have agreed to push the first day of school back to the 1st of October. We'll be doing everything we can in the meantime to secure both Hogwarts and Hogsmeade to ensure that nothing like what happened at the Cup will happen at the school or the village."

As he spoke, Colette summoned the now boiling water from the stove and poured some into the headmaster's cup, as he added his chosen tea leaves. After adding some sugar and a lemon ring and using a quick spell to reduce it to a drinkable temperature, he took a sip, before he added, "Of course, the missed days in September will have to be made up at the end of the school year. So you'll have a shorter than normal summer next year, but I guess that's the tradeoff for having a longer one this year."

"Well, while I'm sure many will complain about that," Colette said, "as far as I can see, it's actually a good thing. Especially for you two, since this will give you about three and a half weeks to get comfortable enough in your new shared body that you can actually get around at Hogwarts without falling on your faces all the time."

"Yes, there is that," Draco said.

Taking another sip of his tea, Albus said, "Speaking of school, there is the matter of your schedules. Needless to say, you have no choice but to attend all of your classes together. Now, for the core classes and the electives that you're both in, that's not a problem. However, for the electives that only one of you is taking, you'll need to talk amongst yourselves and figure out what you want to do. Today's Sunday, so I'll be back on Tuesday for your decisions."

Harry and Draco nodded their understanding, before Dumbledore said, "I'll be telling Remus, Snuffles," Draco raised an eyebrow at this, "Molly and Arthur Weasley, and Professors McGonagall and Snape when I return to Hogwarts that the two of you are still alive and your new rather unique circumstances."

Draco was quiet and just resumed eating, while Harry nodded, feeling a bit apprehensive about what everybody would say about the situation he now found himself in. While he was sure everyone that Dumbledore mentioned, with the possible exception of Snape, would be happy to know that he was alive, he wasn't sure how they'd react about a certain blond who was now a permanent fixture in his life.

Of course, even more than the adults, Harry worried about how his friends and classmates would react to Draco. There was nothing that he could do about it if they couldn't accept it though because it's not like Harry could change his new relationship with the Slytherin… at least if he wanted to survive, which he did because he liked living.

A while later, when they were all finished with breakfast, Albus said, "Thank you for the lovely meal, Colette. I hate to eat and run, but I really should be getting back to Hogwarts. However, you'll probably have a few visitors within the hour or so, as I imagine that Harry's loved ones will wish to see him just as Lucius and Narcissa did last night."

"Of course," Luc said. "It only makes sense when you thought a loved one was dead and find out that they're not that you'd want to see for yourself."

-o-0-o-

About half-an-hour later at Hogwarts, Albus sat at his desk with a stunned looking Remus, Sirius, Molly, Arthur, Minerva, Severus, Pomona and Filius sitting across from him. He'd told Harry and Draco that he was only going to tell their respective Heads of House but upon returning to Hogwarts, he decided that he may as well let the other two Heads of House in on what was going on.

"So, Mr. Potter and Mr. Malfoy are alive?"

"Correct, Pomona."

"And they're sharing a body now?"

Albus nodded. "Yes, Filius. They now share everything below their necks."

"Well, well, well," Severus said, with a shake of his head and a derisive tone. "Mr. Potter has certainly screwed up this time, hasn't he?"

"Excuse me?" Sirius asked, who up until now had been doing his very best to ignore the fact that Severus was in the room. "Perhaps you misheard the headmaster, Snivellus. It was Mr. Malfoy that attempted apparition. He's the one who screwed up."

Holding up his hands, Albus said, "Now, now, please let's not fight. The truth is, and I told them this, they both played a part in their new status. Mr. Potter should not have jumped to conclusions and tackled Mr. Malfoy. Nor should Mr. Malfoy have attempted to apparate. But they each played a role in what happened to them and trying to lay the blame entirely at one or the other's feet… well, foot I suppose as they each now only have one of their own… is unfair."

Molly nodded. "Yes, instead of arguing about who's to blame, shouldn't we just be happy that they're both alive and well?"

"I agree with Molly," Arthur said, as he picked up his wife's hand and kissed it.

Remus nodded. "As do I. They're going to need all of us to help them cope with their new circumstances. What they don't need is us fighting about which one of them is responsible. That will only prolong the rift between them which I think we can all agree must end post-haste."

Filius nodded. "Yes, Remus is quite correct. If it's as you said, Albus, and they each only control one-half of their limbs, the last thing they need is to be fighting with each other."

"Quite," Minerva said as she looked over at Severus and said, "Given their circumstances, it would seem that they have little choice but to cooperate. The only alternatives would be a lifetime of misery as they spend the rest of their lives hating one another and literally fighting every move the other tries to make or getting split apart which would be suicide considering how many internal organs they now share."

Severus sighed. "Yes, I suppose you're correct, Minerva."

"You may want to reign in your disdain for Mr. Potter, Severus," Pomona said. "At least while you're around him and Mr. Malfoy. As doing or saying anything that prolongs their rivalry with each other will only end up hurting Mr. Malfoy in the end, and while I know you'll be inclined to deny it, I know you've got a soft spot for the boy. One that goes beyond just his being in your house."

Severus just looked at his former Herbology professor for a long moment. Years ago when Severus was still a student at Hogwarts, he'd always enjoyed Pomona's classes. She had, in fact, been a very close second after Professor Slughorn as his favorite professor, owing to the fact that so many potions ingredients were plants. After another moment, he sighed and nodded, "You know me too well, Pomona."

Clearing his throat, Albus said, "Obviously, Minerva, Severus, the two of you will need to get together and discuss some issues that now present themselves. Despite sharing a body, Harry is still a Gryffindor and Draco is still a Slytherin."

The two heads nodded, even as Albus continued, "I've already asked them to give some thought to their electives, as they are each taking some which the other didn't take, and asked them to have an answer ready for me on Tuesday. There is, however, also the question of where they're going to sleep moving forward and their positions on their house Quidditch teams."

"Well, as much as I'm sure neither team wishes to lose them," Filius said, "I don't see how they could possibly both remain on their respective teams. Of course, for this at least, we do have some time to figure it out, as I believe it is still the plan to suspend the Quidditch season due to the Tournament?"

"Actually, I've received a request about that," Albus said. "It seems that Madame Maxime of Beauxbatons thinks it would be a splendid idea for us to introduce an Interschool Quidditch Cup, which could be competed for alongside the Triwizard Tournament. She thought it would be nice to give some of the other students in her delegation something to do here at Hogwarts other than study and root for their champion."

Everyone was quiet for a little while, before Molly said, "I know I'm not a professor, but based only upon my experience as the mother of seven, I can say that all of my children greatly enjoy Quidditch and a school year without would, in their minds at least, be tantamount to Arthur and I telling them that we're not going to celebrate their next birthdays or any other holidays for a whole year."

"I'm inclined to agree," Sirius said. "Looking back at my own time at Hogwarts, I know that many of my classmates and myself all greatly looked forward to Quidditch matches. And replacing the twelve Quidditch games that normally happen over the course of the year with only the three Triwizard Tasks is not likely to be very popular."

The others present in the room agreed with Molly's and Sirius's assessment. "Well, then I suppose I'll coordinate with Madame Maxime and Professor Karkaroff and make the necessary arrangements. If each school forms one team, that means there'll only be three Quidditch games this year, but it's better than nothing. Plus we still have the Tournament happening."

"I suppose this means we'll have to handle the Quidditch issue sooner rather than later," Minerva said. "But, Hogwarts would be playing in two of the three games, so we can probably use this as a testbed for next year… assuming, of course, that Mr. Potter and Mr. Malfoy make the Hogwarts team."

"Of that, I think there can be little doubt," Filius said. "As much as I'm sure that Pomona and I would love to be able to say that our own seekers are the best Hogwarts has, if you ranked the four primary seekers for each house, I think Mr. Potter and Mr. Malfoy would come out in the top two."

Nodding, Pomona said, "Yes, except when playing each other, they've won almost every single game they've ever played." She sighed, before adding, "A record which I'm afraid neither Hufflepuff's nor Ravenclaw's seekers can claim."

-o-0-o-

After breakfast, Luc helped Harry and Draco into the living room as they indicated they'd prefer to stay in the public areas of the house for a while rather than going back up to their bedroom.

When they were alone, Draco asked, "Snuffles?"

Harry sighed. "I wish you had a functioning wand, I'd ask for a wizard's oath."

"Secrecy reasons?" Draco asked, prompting Harry to nod. Draco sighed, "Potter, I know you know about your family's place in the wizarding world and what that means for you."

Harry nodded. "They're nobility, one of three extant Most Ancient and Noble Houses, along with the Blacks and your family. As the last living Potter, I'm Heir Potter, Earl of Brynmoor, until my seventeenth birthday, when I inherit the lordship and become Lord Potter, The Marquess of Granston."

Draco nodded. "Indeed. As Heir Malfoy, Earl of Bratton, the two of us can swear a secrecy oath on the honor of our houses that don't require wands."

"We don't need your father's permission for that?"

Shaking his head, Draco said, "Nope, just our Heir rings, which should appear in our hands if we think about them. We're both the confirmed heirs of our houses, so they should come to us if we think about them. They're charmed so that the confirmed owner can never lose it."

Harry nodded before he closed his eyes and concentrated on the ring he'd started wearing about a month into his first year when he'd learned the full truth about his family from Neville, whose family was one level above the Potters on the highest tier of the nobility.

A second later, the golden ring engraved with the Potter family crest that was flanked on both sides by two small rubies, which indicated that its wearer was the heir, appeared in his hand.

While he'd never seen it and wouldn't until he turned seventeen, Harry had been told that the Potter lordship ring was identical to his heir ring, except that there were only two rubies on it instead of four, set on either side of the family crest and each one equal in size to two of the smaller ones on the heir ring.

Looking over, Harry noted that Draco was holding a silver ring in his hand which was engraved with the Malfoy coat of arms, although he couldn't help but notice that it had three emeralds on either side of the family crest.

"Six emeralds?" Harry asked, having never paid close enough attention to Draco's ring to notice the difference.

Draco nodded. "It's because of my family originally being from here in France. My father is Lord Malfoy, but only of the British branch of the family which is the junior branch. My great-great-granduncle Marcel Malfoy is the senior Lord Malfoy, heading up the French branch of the family. The nearby Malfoy Chateau is actually his seat of power."

Harry nodded. "Ah, so the differing number of jewels indicate the hierarchy within the family."

"Correct. Marcel's ring has only two large emeralds and would look the same as the Potter lordship ring, only in silver with a different crest. The ring currently worn by his grandson, Henri, looks very similar to yours, with four emeralds. My father's ring is a copy of Marcel's only with one smaller emerald on either side of the larger ones to indicate the junior branch. So mine then has the extra stones to indicate my place in the hierarchy."

"Okay." Harry paused for a moment, before he asked, "So, um, I know that only the heir is supposed to be able to touch the rings, as anybody else would get electrocuted. But, do you think that still applies to us? I mean considering how close we are? I ask because I think we're actually going to have to help each other if we're actually going to put the rings on."

Draco was quiet for a moment before he nodded and said, "I hadn't thought of that, but you're right. Putting a ring on my left hand would require my right hand which I lost in the accident." With a sigh, he said, "Well, I guess there's one way to find out."

Setting his ring on the end table next to the armchair they were seated in, Draco then reached across their shared body and reached out with a single finger to touch Harry's heir ring. After a moment, he said, "I didn't feel anything."

"Well, from what I understand, the rings are highly charmed, so maybe they're smart enough to recognize that we share a magical core now and will refrain from shocking us as a result."

Draco nodded before he held out his hand and Harry, after a second or two of hesitance placed his ring in Draco's hand. Harry was pretty sure that he'd have felt it if there was going to be a shock, so when there wasn't he just held out his hand so that Draco could slide the ring onto his right ring finger.

Harry hadn't been wearing it the night of the World Cup because as a general rule he didn't wear it to bed and instead took it off before putting it in a lockbox next to his bed that was charmed so that only he could open it or even touch it.

With Harry's ring on, Draco picked up his own ring and handed it to Harry who still hesitated for a second before reaching out and taking it, sighing in relief when there was no shock before he placed it Draco's left ring finger.

Clearing his throat, Draco said, "Right, so we need the formal full versions of our names, rather than the informal full versions. Mine is Draconis Lucianus Malfoy."

"Mine is Hadrianus Jameson Potter," Harry said, as he briefly thought back to his surprise upon learning that wizarding nobility actually had two versions of their full names.

The formal version which was used in magical rituals and oaths, along with most official legal documents, while the informal version was for everyday use and the smattering of legal documents that didn't require the formal name, which was usually limited to social clubs or the like, rather than anything official like government documents. There were exceptions, of course, as there were a few official legal documents that called for the informal name, but those were few and far between.

"I, Draconis Lucianus Malfoy, Confirmed Heir of the Most Ancient and Noble House of Malfoy and Earl of Bratton, solemnly swear upon the honor of my house, that I will keep the personal secrets of Hadrianus Jameson Potter and not share them with anyone without his explicit permission."

After a slight pause, he added, "I furthermore swear upon the honor of my house that I will keep all Potter family secrets which I may unavoidably come into possession of due to sharing a body with Hadrianus Jameson Potter and not share them with anyone without his explicit permission. So mote it be."

Draco's heir ring flashed with a visible aura of magic for a moment, as he completed his oath.

With a nod, Harry said, "I, Hadrianus Jameson Potter, Confirmed Heir of the Most Ancient and Noble House of Potter and Earl of Brynmoor," before repeating word for word what Draco had just sworn to, only changing the names where necessary. "So mote it be."

As the visible aura of magic disappeared from Harry's ring, he nodded and said, "Good idea adding the part about family secrets, Draco. Honestly, I hadn't thought of it, but I suppose it's unavoidable that we're going to learn each other's family secrets going forward, along with all of our personal secrets eventually."

Draco nodded. "It's rather hard to keep secrets from a person who's head is only six inches away for your own and who you share almost everything below the neck with. So, I figured it was best to cover all the bases now."

"So, Snuffles," Harry said. "That's one of two names that my godfather uses while in his animagus form, which is a large black dog, similar to a grim."

"Okay, but why did Dumbledore call him Snuffles? Why not just use his actual name?"

"Because he's a wanted man back home," Harry answered with a sigh. "He's innocent of all charges against him and despite what the papers would say, he's not convicted because in order to be convicted you have to have actually been tried first. He never was."

"Who exactly is your godfather?"

Turning his head, Harry whispered in Draco's ear, "Sirius Black."

Draco's eyes widened at this as he turned to Harry with a surprised look on his face, leading Harry to nod his head.

Any response that Draco might have to the information was stopped before he could open his mouth as Colette called out, "Harry, you have company."

Barely two seconds later, Harry could only laugh as he found his face being licked like crazy by a large black dog, whose front paws were resting on Harry's right shoulder and the shared shoulder between his and Draco's heads.

Draco did his best to lean away from the dog licking Harry's face, not that he could lean very far with only six inches of space between his and Harry's necks. Shoulder bones weren't very flexible, after all.

Remus came into the room a couple minutes later to see what was going on. He'd been delayed by a few minutes as he swore Luc and Colette to secrecy in regards to Sirius. He grinned at the sight, although it fell slightly when he saw the clearly uncomfortable look on Draco's face.

"Padfoot, down!" Remus commanded in his most authoritative voice. He fully understood that Sirius was happy to see Harry, he was too. But that didn't mean that he should make Harry's new… well, he wasn't exactly sure what to call Draco… uncomfortable.

Padfoot stopped licking Harry's face and whined slightly, but he did get down, at which he point he sat on the floor next to the chair that Harry and Draco were sitting in and let out a happy bark.

Smiling, Remus said, "Hello, Harry. I can't tell you how good it is to see you." After a pause, he looked over at Draco and added, "And you too, Mr. Malfoy."

Pulling a handkerchief from the pocket of their trousers, Draco handed it over to Harry, who gratefully accepted it so that he could wipe his face, which was currently covered in dog slobber. Nodding, Draco said, "Professor Lupin, nice to see you too."

"Call me Remus. I'm not a professor anymore, remember."

Draco nodded and said, "Which sucks because even I can admit you were the best DADA professor we ever head." He paused, and said, "Not that it's hard to be better than Quirrell, who we could barely understand through his stuttering most of the time, or the complete and utter disaster that was Lockhart, but still by far the best."

"Thank you, Mr. Malfoy," Remus said, adding in his head, "I think."

Finishing wiping his face, Harry turned to look at the dog and said, "Draco knows about you, I told him."

"Harry are you sure that's wise?" Remus asked.

"It's okay, Remus," Harry answered, as he lifted his hand so that his ring was clearly visible. "Draco and I both swore on the honor of our houses that we would keep each other's secrets, both personal and family, as…" he sighed at this, before finishing, "…it's rather doubtful that we'll be able to keep anything from each other, considering."

Transforming back into his human form, since he already knew that Remus was going to swear Luc and Colette to secrecy since he'd told him that before they came through the Floo, Sirius said, "Yes, I suppose sharing a body would make keeping secrets rather difficult."

After a moment's pause, he added, "And if the Malfoys are anything at all like the Blacks, then I know they care about their family honor above just about everything else, so I'll assume that my secret is safe."

Draco nodded. "Even if it wasn't for the oath, I would have kept your secret, Sirius. One, because if I didn't, he," as he jerked his head in Harry's direction, "would undoubtedly make my life miserable, which he can very easily do now that we can't get away from each other. And two, because, well, my mum is a Black and if your godson didn't make my life miserable, well then my mum surely would."

"Huh, that's right, Draco is actually related to you by blood, isn't he?" Harry asked, not sure how to feel about that.

Sirius nodded. "Yes, his mother is my first cousin, since his grandfather Cygnus was my late mother's brother." Seeing the look on Harry's face, he added, "Although you and I are also related by blood, Harry."

"We are?" Harry asked.

"Yes," Sirius said. "I'd have to look at the family tree to be sure, but I think either your grandfather's father or grandfather married a Black, so it's a more distant connection, but it's still a connection."

Remus nodded. "Most of the old pureblood families, especially the noble ones, are related to each other somehow. It's just a case of going far enough back on the family tree to find the link."

"And not to put too fine a point on it," Luc said as he entered the room with Colette, "but you might be more closely related to Sirius now than you were. After all, you share a heart now and countless blood vessels, so I don't think you can refer to Harry's blood and Draco's blood anymore, as I rather think it's your blood now."

Draco looked like he hadn't even considered that, as he asked, "Does that mean I'm not a pureblood anymore?"

"Well, I am a halfblood, Draco," Harry said. "Since my mum was muggleborn."

"I don't think your new connection really has that much effect on your ancestry," Colette said, disagreeing with her husband on this point. "Harry is still the son of James and Lily, while Draco is still the son of Lucius and Narcissa. That will never change, nor do I believe that either of you suddenly has four parents. It is, indisputable however, that you do share the same blood now."

"I suppose one argument you could make, Draco," Luc said, "is that you're still a pureblood since part of the function of the liver and the kidneys is to filter your blood. Just as you lost your heart and lungs in the accident, Harry lost his liver and kidneys. So, I suppose one could make the argument that Harry is a pureblood now, since his blood being filtered through a pureblood's liver and kidneys."

"I can accept that argument," Sirius said. "Although I'm not sure I'd say that same for some of the most ardent pureblood supremacists."

Shaking his head, Draco said, "Great, just great," as now he had an entirely new reason to fear the reaction of his housemates.

He'd already figured that they'd have a problem with him sharing flesh and bones with the Gryffindor Golden Boy. But the possibility that they wouldn't consider him one of them anymore because Harry's blood was polluting his was something he hadn't considered.

"You're right, the majority of them probably won't," Draco said. "Oh Merlin, for what I think may be the first time in my life, I'm dreading the first day of school."

"Me too," Harry said. "Me too."

-o-0-o-

To be continued…

So, there's Ch3 of The Battle is Joined. Reunions with Harry's loved ones will continue in Ch4, but I figured since this chapter is almost double the length of the first two, this was a good place to end for now.

Questions? Comments? Suggestions? I love hearing from my readers, so feel free to contact me in a review, by email (Gmail: jaycolin25), my LiveJournal (JayColin), my group: (slash) g (slash) storiesbyjayson, or on Twitter JVascardi. Alternatively, you can also contact me via Skype (text messaging only) at . Also, don't forget to check out my Wiki: .com.


	4. The Other Lord Malfoy

The Battle is Joined

By J.C. Vascardi

-o-0-o-

Chapter Four:

The Other Lord Malfoy

-o-0-o-

"Oh, Harry, dear, it's so good to see you," Molly Weasley said an hour later, as she entered the room along with Arthur, Bill, Charlie, Percy, Fred, George, Ron, Ginny, and Hermione.

"You too, Mrs. Weasley," Harry said with a smile, even as he worried about how his friends were taking this, as he couldn't help but notice that Ron was hanging back and looking uncomfortable.

Returning the hug from his surrogate mother, albeit with only one arm, since Draco was keeping his arm at his side, he smiled as Molly planted a kiss on his cheek. At least Molly didn't have a problem with his new lot in life. Harry would have hated it if she did since it would almost be like losing his mum all over again since Molly was the closest thing to a mother that he could remember having.

As Molly stepped back, Arthur came forward and gave Harry a one-armed hug which he happily returned. This continued as Bill, Charlie, Percy, the twins, Ginny, and Hermione did the same, refraining from touching Draco's side of their shared body as they did so.

Ron, however, hung back. He was still standing in the entrance to Luc and Colette's living room looking rather like a fish out of water. He kept opening and closing his mouth as if he was about to say something but then didn't as he just stared at Harry and Draco.

"Ron?" Harry asked.

Ron snapped out of his fish impression at this and moved closer. Harry had a sinking feeling in the pit of his and Draco's stomach, however, as his oldest friend got closer and he could see how his expression changed as soon as his face was no longer in his parents' and siblings' line of sight.

"This is all your fault, you filthy, disgusting Slytherin!" Ron whispered just loudly enough that Harry and Draco could hear it, but nobody else in the room, except for Remus, could.

The next thing Harry knew Draco was flinching away and putting his arm up in a defensive gesture to try and protect his face as Ron's balled-up fist was quickly coming towards Draco's face.

Just before it would have made contact, however, Harry's seeker reflexes kicked in and he grabbed Ron's wrist in an iron grip and stopped him from punching Draco.

"What the fuck, Harry?!" Ron shouted. "Let go!"

"Shaking his head, Harry said, "No, Ron. I'm not going to let you punch him."

"Why not?! He bloody deserves it!"

Harry rolled his eyes. "A part of me agrees, Ron, but I'm still not going to let you punch him." Ron looked like he wanted to retort, but Harry cut him off, by adding, "Think Ron! Draco and I share a body now. If you punch him, it would be the same thing as punching me, because I'll feel it."

"I don't care," Ron said, as he wrenched his wrist free of Harry's grip. Harry wasn't the only one who'd been working out the last three years, as Ron had joined him in his weight-training and for his morning runs. Before anyone could react, Harry and Draco fell backward into the chair behind them, as Ron's first connected with Draco's mouth.

Both Harry and Draco cried out in pain, not only from the punch but also because the direction of it made Draco's head quickly turn and knock Harry's.

"Ronald Bilius Weasley!" Molly practically screamed, even as Remus jumped up from his seat and grabbed Ron, dragging him several feet back. Ron struggled to free himself, but no matter how much he'd been working out, he was still no match for an enraged werewolf.

Growling, Remus said, "You're lucky, Ronald, that it isn't the full moon or I'd be tearing you limb from limb for harming a member of my pack."

Turning his head, Remus said, "Bill, Charlie, can you get your brother out of my sight before the wolf makes me do something I may or may not regret?"

Bill and Charlie nodded as they moved to stand on either side of their youngest brother, grabbed his arms, and dragged him out of the room. As he did so, he was screaming at not only Draco but also Harry, making it very clear what he thought of their new circumstances. And it wasn't positive in the slightest.

Just as they reached the entrance into the living room, Percy rolled his eyes, pulled out his wand and said, "Oh do shut up, Ron! _**Silencio!**_"

Ron continued his tirade even though no sound was escaping his lips, as Bill and Charlie dragged him out of the room. Remus, meanwhile, turned his attention to Harry and Draco as he asked, "Are you two okay?"

It took a moment for either of them to respond, as they were dazed when their heads knocked into each other.

"I think we might both have a lump where our heads hit," Harry said, as he turned and looked at Draco. "And Draco has a busted lip, but I'm sure you knew that."

Remus nodded, as he could see that Ron had busted the blond's lip and there was now a trickle of blood making its way down his chin.

Luc came over and with a flick of his wand, Draco's lip was healed, at which point Draco said, "I know all of you might disagree with me on this, but I want to press charges against him. He can't just go around hitting people."

Before anyone could say anything, a male voice said, "Oh I quite agree, Draco."

Everyone turned toward the entrance to the room and saw Lucius and Narcissa Malfoy standing in the doorway. It wasn't Lucius who spoke, however, but rather the tall, impeccably dressed man with long white hair standing next to him, his arm locked with the arm of an equally well-dressed woman with graying medium blonde hair.

Turning to the elder Weasleys, the man asked, "Arthur and Molly Weasley, I assume?"

"Yes," Arthur said, as Molly nodded.

"I'm Lord Marcel Malfoy, the Duke of Calais," the white-haired man said. "Since your son assaulted my great-great-grandnephew in France, and on my lands, I'm well within my rights to see that he's charged. And I have every intention of doing so."

Before Arthur and Molly could say anything in response, Remus tilted his head to the side, as his enhanced senses picked up on the smell of blood coming from Harry's and Draco's direction. He was momentarily confused by this as Luc had healed Draco's lip and vanished what blood there had been. He had always been smart, however, and it didn't take long for his eyes to widen as he said, "Luc, check their bandages. I can smell blood."

Luc quickly scanned the front of Harry's and Draco's shirt and saw nothing, but when he stood up and leaned them forward slightly so that he could see their back, he saw red, as the white silk of the shirt they were wearing was stained red with blood.

"Shit, they've ripped their stitches open," Luc said as he quickly cast a spell to immobilize Harry and Draco in a stasis field before levitating them over to the nearby sofa face down. "Everybody out. I have to vanish their clothes to treat them and I'm sure they'd rather you all didn't see them naked."

"You heard my husband," Colette said as she shooed everyone out of the living room. "Out. Now!"

There was concern on several faces, but they complied with Luc and Colette, as they all filed out of the room and out into the kitchen, as Colette waved her wand and closed the curtains that hung in the entrance to the room.

Vanishing Harry's and Draco's clothes, Luc immediately set to work assessing the damage as he said, "Colette, get me clean bandages, dittany, a Blood Replenisher, and a vial of clotting potion. Bring me those and then go up to their room and bring them some new clothes."

Colette nodded as she hurried out of the room and down a short hallway off the kitchen that connected their cottage to the small village clinic where Luc saw the majority of his patients and kept his healing supplies.

-o-0-o-

It was almost half-an-hour later that Luc emerged from the living room and looked at everyone gathered. "They're fine now and are resting peacefully. It's a good thing that Remus was here and smelled their blood when he did because much longer and they could have bled to death."

"The damage was that bad?" Arthur asked.

Nodding Luc said, "Yes, Arthur, it was. They each had large sections of their bodies ripped off. While their magic saved their lives, the deep wound where what was left of their bodies fused is still not fully healed and when they fell backward, they must have done it at just the right angle that they ripped open the stitches on their back."

"Well, that changes things rather dramatically," Marcel said as he looked over at Arthur and Molly. "I'm afraid I'll have to change the charges against your son from two counts of assault, to two counts of attempted involuntary manslaughter."

Before anyone could say anything, Lucius said, "You should add a count of attempted line theft, as well. Mr. Potter is the last living member of Albion's Most Ancient and Noble House of Potter, so killing him, even unintentionally, would count as line theft."

Marcel nodded. "A very serious crime indeed."

"Is this necessary?" Molly asked. "I'm sure Ronald didn't intend to commit murder."

"I don't believe he did either," Marcel said. "Which is why I'm not charging him with attempted murder, but the lesser crime of attempted involuntary manslaughter. And as Lucius rightfully pointed out, attempted line theft."

Marcel's wife, Angelique, nodded and said, "I suggest you contact your two elder sons, Mr. and Mrs. Weasley, and have them bring Ron back here immediately."

Arthur and Molly looked at each other for a moment, before they nodded and Arthur got up to make a Floo call to The Burrow. Marcel, meanwhile, used one of the many functions of his lordship ring to contact his Captain of the Guard and apprise him of the situation.

Less than five minutes later, there was a knock on the front door, and Colette opened to it to admit Captain Etienne Fournier and two of the household guards at the Malfoy Chateau. Two minutes later, the flames of the fireplace flared as Bill and Charlie Flooed back in with Ron.

"Why are you bringing me back here?" Ron asked. "I'm not going to apologize to that filthy Slytherin or my Slytherin apologist former friend."

"Ronald Weasley!" Arthur shouted. "Shut your mouth this instant. You're only making it worse for yourself."

"You knew that Harry and Draco were gravely injured," Molly said. "And yet you still attacked them and in so doing split their stitches open. If Remus hadn't been here and smelled blood and Luc wasn't here to quickly treat them, they could have died."

Before Ron could say a word, Etienne pulled his wand, pointed it at Ron and said, "_**Expelliarmus!**_" causing Ron's wand to fly out of his back pocket and into the captain's hand. Before Ron could object, another spell found him bound in thick ropes which made it impossible for him to move anything below his neck.

Standing up to his full height, Marcel said, "Mr. Ronald Weasley, as the Duke of Calais and a Peer of France, I hereby invoke my right to charge you for the crimes that you committed on my lands. For your reckless actions against Mr. Harry Potter and Mr. Draco Malfoy, you stand charged with two counts of attempted involuntary manslaughter."

Ron's eyes widened at this, but before he could say anything, Marcel continued. "Furthermore, since your actions could have resulted in the death of Mr. Harry Potter, the confirmed heir and last living member of the Most Ancient and Noble House of Potter, you are furthermore charged with one count of attempted line theft."

Ron's mouth dropped open at this, as he began to realize the seriousness of what he'd done. Shaking his head, he said, "I didn't intend to kill either of them. I just wanted to hurt them."

"You're not helping yourself, Ronald," Bill said, with a sad shake of his head.

"Indeed, you are not," Marcel said. "Since your crimes were seen by several witnesses and you just admitted your guilt, you are hereby judged guilty on all charges."

Marcel paused for only a moment, before he added, "In accordance to the sentencing guidelines laid out by the Wizarding Estates-General Criminal Code of 1329, I hereby sentence you to two terms of ten years each for the two counts of attempted involuntary manslaughter, plus an additional term of thirty years for the grievous crime of attempted line theft. All prison terms shall be served concurrently at the Wizarding Prison of Fort Royale on Île Sainte-Marguerite."

Holding up his hand to stop Ron from speaking when it looked like he was going to, Marcel said, "Now, because you are still a minor, I grant you this special dispensation: while imprisoned, you will be allowed to continue your magical education and sit the fifth and seventh-year standardized tests of the Kingdom of Albion."

"Furthermore, upon your seventeenth birthday," Marcel continued, "you shall be brought before the Fort Royale parole board. If under the influence of Veritaserum, you can express remorse for your crimes, then you shall be paroled, with the stipulation that you serve a further three years of community service. After the completion of said service, your record will be expunged of all wrong-doing."

After a moment of silence, Marcel said, "If you are not remorseful, however, you will serve out the remainder of your sentence and upon release, your record will not be expunged. As such, you will be legally required by international law to identify yourself as a convicted felon guilty of both attempted involuntary manslaughter and attempted line theft on all job applications and legal documents for the rest of your life."

"Can we have a few moments to say goodbye?" Molly asked.

Marcel nodded. "You have five minutes." Turning to Etienne he added, "When their time is up, you are to take him directly to Île Sainte-Marguerite. They'll have my signed order by the time you arrive."

"Yes, my lord," Etienne said with a bow, as the Weasleys were given their time to say they goodbyes to Ron.

-o-0-o-

After Ron was taken to prison, the Weasleys, Marcel, Angelique and Lucius left since Harry and Draco were sleeping. Remus, Sirius, and Narcissa remained, just to watch over them, as Luc headed into the clinic to see to his other patients and Colette left to check-in at the village apothecary, which she owned.

It was while Luc returned to the cottage to fix himself a quick lunch that Albus arrived through the Floo. Almost as soon as he had stepped into the room, he asked, "I heard what happened with Mr. Weasley. How are Harry and Draco?"

"They're about as well as can be expected, Albus," Luc answered. "I'm afraid ripping open the stitches on their back has setback their full recovery, however."

"Have you tried phoenix tears?"

Shaking his head, Luc said, "No, I haven't. Phoenixes are rare, their tears are very expensive and have a short shelf-life. I don't keep them on hand, as a result."

Albus smiled, as he closed his eyes for a moment. A second later, there was a flash of flame as Fawkes appeared and landed on Albus's shoulder. "Well, I'm sure Fawkes would be more than happy to help Harry and Draco."

The phoenix nodded and crooned a happy note at this, as Luc nodded and said, "Very well. They're in the living room with Remus, Sirius, and Narcissa. I sedated them earlier, although that's probably worn off by now."

Nodding, Albus walked over to the curtained archway and pushed back the curtain, making Sirius, Remus, Narcissa turn their heads in his direction. Harry and Draco were awake, but since they were facing the entrance to the room, they didn't have to turn their heads.

"Afternoon all," Albus said with a bright smile. "Luc has okayed Fawkes to attempt to heal your wounds, Harry, Draco."

"Awesome," Harry said because while a part of him hated the idea of the wounds being healed and his skin knitting permanently with Draco's, he hated the idea of dying even more.

Having been told what happened to Ron, Harry was upset that it had come to that but was even more upset by the fact that Ron had almost killed him. Well, and Draco, too, he supposed.

"While I redid their stitches, I think it would be best to heal their back first," Luc said. "And then if it works, Fawkes can do the front."

"Um, can Fawkes put some tears in a vial or something?" Draco asked. "For the wounds in more private places?"

While he didn't mind the bird seeing his naked back or chest and abdomen, he wasn't very comfortable with the idea of Fawkes crying on his arse. Or between his and Harry's cocks, or between their legs.

Fawkes nodded, prompting Albus to say, "Yes, that's possible. For now, take off your shirt and lie down on your stomach."

Shaking his head, Harry said, "One of these days, maybe I'll get used to the idea that Draco and I share a stomach."

"Same here, Potter," Draco said, as they unbuttoned their shirt and laid down as Albus had suggested.

Luc came over and removed their bandages and the fresh dittany he'd placed on their wounds, before Fawkes flew over from Albus's shoulder and landed on Harry's and Draco's arse, before leaning his head down, as he began to cry.

Everyone watched with bated breath as the tears fell… and smiled as they watched the angry red line of the deep wound on the small of their back disappear as Harry's suntanned skin knitted together with Draco's pale skin to form a single smooth and completely unblemished surface.

Hopping off their arse and onto the newly healed section, Fawkes continued crying, moving as necessary until he reached their shoulders.

"Did it work?" Harry asked as he felt Fawkes move off his and Draco's back.

"Perfectly, my boy," Albus said. "There's no trace of a wound or scarring present. The only thing left now is the obvious tan line where your skin meets Draco's."

As Harry and Draco moved onto their back to give Fawkes access to their front, Harry shook his head and said, "Well, that's going to be fun to fix. Not sure how we're going to get Draco to tan enough to match while not making my skin even darker or burned."

"I don't think it'll be a problem, pup," Sirius said. "You'd probably be losing your tan soon anyway, what with autumn and winter coming. So, it'll be easier to get the tan back, in a far more uniformed way, next summer."

A part of Harry wanted to slap Sirius, considering just how hard he'd worked on his tan back on Privet Drive as he slaved away in Petunia's garden all summer. The local gardening club had even awarded her first place in their annual competition. Unsurprisingly, Petunia took all the credit, even though most of the neighbors could probably see that Harry had done all the work.

Still, the logical part of his brain knew that Sirius was right. It's not like Harry was going to be going outside to tan in the middle of winter in the Scottish Highlands. He'd done some pretty crazy things in his life, but even he wasn't that crazy.

Narcissa nodded. "Yes, it may have to wait until next summer. And Draco, don't fight Harry on it. Merlin knows you could use some sun."

Draco glared at his mother, who just shook her head and added, "Don't give me that look, young man. After seeing the contrast between you and Harry, I have to say that the deathly pale look doesn't suit you."

"I am not deathly pale!" Draco exclaimed as Luc finished removing the bandages from their front.

Harry rolled his eyes. "Whatever you say, Draco," as Fawkes came over and began crying over their abdomen.

This effectively ended the argument as both Harry and Draco were too caught up in watching as the twisting 'S' shaped wound disappeared as their flesh knitted together so perfectly that they almost had a hard time believing it hadn't been that way all their lives.

-o-0-o-

To be continued…

And there's Ch4 of 'The Battle is Joined'. I know some of you might dislike what happened to Ron. It sort of caught me by surprise as I was writing it, but I decided to keep it as I could see Ron losing his temper and doing something stupid which had consequences that he didn't even think of.

Anyway, I've decided to start using my long-dormant Facebook account. So, if you want to friend me there, feel free. The link is in my profiles or here: .com (slash) . Of course, if you're reading this on FFNet, it'll probably remove the majority of the link. So if my profile hasn't updated, just look me up on AO3, same penname, and it's on my profile there.


	5. Back to Albion

The Battle is Joined  
By J.C. Vascardi

-o-0-o-

Chapter Five:  
Back to Albion

-o-0-o-

After Albus and Fawkes left, Luc helped Harry and Draco upstairs to the guest room that they'd been using. Taking off their trousers and underwear, Harry and Draco laid back on the bed as Luc used an eyedropper to apply phoenix tears to the wounds in more private locations.

Both Harry and Draco were still embarrassed at Luc seeing them naked, but he was their healer, so that helped a little. They would have applied the tears themselves, but it would have been very difficult for them to reach some of their wounds, such as in their arse crack, without potentially spilling and wasting the precious tears that Fawkes had provided.

It was only due to the rarity of phoenixes, the fact that their tears had to be willingly given for their healing properties to work, and that they had a shelf-life of fewer than two days that prevented anyone from harvesting the tears and making a fortune off of them.

Unlike with some magical creatures, there wasn't a poacher on the planet who ever tried to capture a phoenix for the various ingredients that it could provide for black market sale. After all, how exactly does one go about capturing an animal that can teleport itself away in a flash of flames?

There wasn't an anti-apparition ward known to wizardkind that could block phoenix flashes, after all. Plus, even if there was, phoenixes had to willingly give their tears and feathers for them to have any power. If they were taken against a phoenix's will, then they were as useless as a broken umbrella in a rainstorm.

Once their wounds were healed and they were dressed, Luc helped them back down to the living room. As they sat down, Narcissa asked, "Now that their wounds are healed, do they have to remain here? Or can they come back home?"

"The only reason I was keeping them here was out of a fear of infection. However, Fawkes' tears have eliminated that possibility as their wounds are now fully healed. So, yes, you may take them back to Albion whenever you wish."

-o-0-o-

His Grace the Lord Garrick Ollivander, the Duke of Whitehaven, was standing in the back room of his shop on Diagon Alley taking inventory. He had just finished making note of the number of Hebridean Black and Common Welsh Green heartstrings he had in stock when out of the corner of his eye he saw a burst of flame.

Turning he saw a single phoenix tail feather lying on his work table, along with a small scroll of parchment.

Picking up the scroll, Garrick unrolled it and read the note to himself, as he muttered, "Curious, very curious."

-o-0-o-

About half-an-hour after Narcissa asked if the boys could go home, Marcel's grandson, Henri, and his husband, Lancelot, stopped by the cottage. After introductions were made, the pair of them grinned at Harry and Draco as Henri said, "We have a gift for you, cousin, Mr. Potter."

As Henri spoke, Lancelot summoned a large box from the kitchen and put it on the coffee table in front of the sofa that Harry and Draco were seated on.

"As Draco knows, Henri and I usually make furniture," Lancelot said, "but when we heard about your situation, we put our heads together and came up with these."

Even though Henri was the confirmed heir of the senior branch of House Malfoy and as such had more money in just his personal vault then he could ever spend in his lifetime, let alone what was contained within the Malfoy family vaults, he'd still opened a furniture-crafting business which had quickly become one of the premier suppliers in all of France for fine handcrafted furniture that the nobility and the rich used to furnish their homes.

It was through his business that he'd met Lancelot, who was a member of a junior branch of the French noble House Lavoisier that had no interest in a career with the family's wine business. Brought in as Henri's assistant in the early days of the venture, the two quickly became friends and then lovers, before marrying late last year.

Harry and Draco were both curious about what was in the box, so reaching out they untied the strings and opened it. What they found were a pair of intricately hand-carved mahogany forearm crutches.

Henri came over and helped them stand up before Lancelot grabbed one of the crutches, lifting Draco's arm and positioning it to rest in the green and silver silk brocade covered cradle.

"With these, you'll have added stability," Henri explained, "as your forearms will be cradled at an angle that allows you quick access to your wands, should you need them."

Nodding, Lancelot said, "Without having to worry about letting go of them and losing the stability they provide. Just let go of the handle on the front of the cradle and you can eject your wands from a forearm holster into your hands."

"Thank you," Draco said, prompting Henri to nod, as Lancelot grabbed the other crutch, which had red and gold silk brocade, and got Harry's arm situated.

It took a few tries, as they got used to them, but soon Harry and Draco were walking around the room on their own, without the need of Luc's assistance or grabbing onto furniture to steady themselves.

Draco didn't currently have a wand, as they hadn't gotten to the store to replace it yet, but Harry was able to test it by ejecting his wand from his forearm holster into his hand. Since the forearm cradles on top of the crutches had their arms bent at the elbow and out in front of them, he was easily able to let go of the handle that his hand would normally wrap around and use his wand.

"It works very well," Harry said, as Draco nodded in agreement as he watched Harry test his ability to use his wand. "The personalization is cool."

In addition to the different colors of brocade, the area above the handle that Draco's hand was wrapped around had a silver snake's head with tiny emeralds for eyes. Harry's, meanwhile, had a golden lion's head with rubies.

Henri smiled. "We considered making them match, but then figured that a bit of personalization based on your Hogwarts houses would make them a bit more unique."

"We've added extra padding charms to the forearms cradles," Lancelot added. "Also the moment your forearms were strapped into the cradles, a spell designed to tie into your magical signatures will have activated."

"What does it do?" Narcissa asked.

"Prevents anyone but the two of them from being able to summon their crutches," Henri answered. "So they needn't worry about someone trying to summon their crutches away from them."

"It also blocks the Disarming Charm," Lancelot added. "The charm won't prevent someone from disarming you of your wands, but they won't be able to use either the Summoning or Disarming Charms to relieve you of your crutches."

"Sweet," Draco said, as Harry nodded in agreement.

A part of Harry wanted to offer to pay for them, as they must have cost a small fortune, but he kept his mouth shut since they had clearly been indicated to be a gift.

-o-0-o-

It wasn't long after Henri and Lancelot left the cottage that Harry and Draco found themselves spinning out of the Floo into the drawing room of Malfoy Manor. They were both glad to have their new crutches, as they were sure that they would have face-planted if they hadn't been able to brace themselves.

Growing up in the wizarding world, Draco had mastered the ability to emerge from the Floo and remain standing years ago, while it had taken Harry until midway through his third year to reliably remain on his feet. Their shared body had wreaked havoc with their equilibrium, however, so they knew if it hadn't been for the crutches, they'd have their noses in the expensive handwoven Oriental rug covering the oaken floor.

Moving away from the fireplace to allow the others to come through, Harry and Draco were soon joined by Narcissa, Remus, and Sirius, who had shifted into his animagus form before coming through the Floo.

Everyone had been leery about letting Lucius and Narcissa in on the secret regarding Sirius, but it all turned out quite well. The moment that Narcissa found out that her cousin had wrongfully spent over a decade in Azkaban for crimes he didn't commit, she was practically frothing at the mouth with anger.

While not having the direct blood connection of being first cousins to Sirius to fuel his anger, Lucius himself was also quite displeased. After all, Sirius was the eldest and only living son of the former heir of House Black. The thought that a member of the high nobility on the same level as Lucius himself could be thrown into Azkaban without even the semblance of a trial was a direct assault on everything he was raised to believe in.

Spelling the soot from her clothes, Narcissa called out, "Dokky!"

Harry tilted his head as a second later there was a pop, as a house-elf appeared in the room. Scrutinizing the elf, Harry noticed a resemblance to Dobby. This elf was clearly older, but Harry couldn't shake the feeling that it might be related to Dobby, as the resemblance and similar name seemed too coincidental.

The elf bowed and said, "Yes, Mistress Narcissa?"

"Please show Mr. Lupin to a guest room," Narcissa said. "And show Padfoot to a room in the family wing."

If the house-elf thought it at all strange that Narcissa was telling him to show a dog to a bedroom, he didn't say anything. He only nodded in understanding.

Before the elf could pop away, Harry said, "Um, Dokky, was it?"

This made the elf turn to Harry and cock its head for a moment, before it asked, "Yes Master Draco's bodymate?"

Harry and Draco shared a look at that description. They'd been struggling with what to call each other, but they supposed that bodymate was as good a description as any other, given their circumstances.

"Harry. My name is Harry Potter, heir of House Potter."

Dokky nodded, as he bowed and said, "It's a pleasure to meet you. What can Dokky do to assist you?"

"I was just wondering, are you related to a house-elf named Dobby?"

Narcissa and Draco looked at each other at that, even as Dokky nodded. "Dobby was Dokky's nephew."

"Was?" Harry asked.

Dokky nodded. "He died."

"Is that what Lucius told you?" Harry asked. Before anyone could say anything, however, Harry shook his head and said, "Dobby warned me of a plot against my life in my second year at Hogwarts. In gratitude, I tricked Lucius into freeing him, by giving Dobby a book with one of my socks in it. Lucius then tried to murder me in the corridor right outside Headmaster Dumbledore's office, although Dobby, now free, stopped him."

There was silence as Narcissa and Draco digested this information, while Remus who already knew just smiled and shook his head, while Sirius barked.

"Dobby is not dead," Harry said. "He came to work at Hogwarts for a short time as a free elf, although he has since been bound to House Potter when it became clear that his health was suffering from not being bound to a family."

"Dobby isn't dead?" Dokky asked, his tone a bit halting as if he didn't want to believe what he was hearing.

"No, he isn't," Harry said before he concentrated on his bond with the elf and called out, "Dobby!"

A moment later, there was a pop as Dobby popped into the room for the first time in over a year. "Master Harry called for…"

Dobby stopped speaking as he noted his surroundings and then noticed that Harry was now sharing a body with Draco.

"Master Harry is conjoined to former Master Draco?"

"It's a long story, Dobby," Harry answered. "The short version is a botched apparition attempt splinched Draco and I so badly that our magic reacted to save our lives and what you see is the result."

Dobby nodded, as Dokky cleared his throat and said, "Dobby, is that really you?"

Turning to his uncle, Dobby nodded and said, "Yes, uncle, it is Dobby."

The two elves hugged each other at this point, each clearly happy to see the other. When they stopped their hug and Dobby had turned back to face Harry, the latter said, "For obvious reasons, I'll be living here at Malfoy Manor now, Dobby."

Dobby nodded, before Harry said, "Could you go the Burrow and bring me my trunk, my broom, and Hedwig's cage? I'll have to trash most of my clothes, but there are still some things that I wish to keep."

"Of course, Master Harry," Dobby nodded, before turning to look at his former mistress. "Master Draco's bedroom, Dobby assumes?"

Finding her voice, Narcissa shook her head and said, "No, for the time being, bring them to the smaller bedroom across the hall from his bedroom."

Dobby nodded as he popped out of the room, while Remus and Sirius followed Dokky out of the room.

Draco looked confused as he asked, "Mother? Why did you tell Dobby to take Potter's things to the smaller bedroom across from mine? We can't have separate rooms."

"I'm aware of that, Draco," Narcissa said. "However, for now, the two of you will be sleeping in a different room until the redecorating is finished."

"Redecorating?" Draco asked. "What redecorating?"

Narcissa gave her son a patient look, as she asked, "Honestly, Draco, did you really think that your room would remain exactly the same now that it is no longer only your room? Since it is now just as much Harry's as it is yours, he has a right to have some say in the décor."

Draco remained quiet for a moment, as he contemplated what his mother said. He then turned his head to face Harry's and said, "Don't get any ideas about doing the whole room in Gryffindor colors, Potter."

"Don't worry, Draco," Harry said. "While I do like red and gold, I have no desire to be surrounded by it constantly. I have enough of that at Hogwarts. If it were up to me, I'd redecorate my section of the dormitory in more neutral colors, with accents in blue, and maybe some red and green. Probably more of the latter than the former, but still only as an accent color."

"Well, I guess that doesn't sound too horrible. The room is currently done in shades of green, with black and silver accents."

"I wouldn't say no to a little silver and gold," Harry said, "but it would have to be in moderation. Too much and it just becomes gaudy."

Draco sighed. "I'm agreeing with you far too much lately, Potter."

"You say that as if that's a problem," Narcissa said. "Considering your closeness, I think a level of agreement is a good thing. Now, let's go upstairs shall we?"

-o-0-o-

Meanwhile, while Narcissa was getting Harry and Draco settled, Lucius popped into the Apparition Chamber of Arlington Grange, the Black family's ancestral estate. Seconds later, a house-elf appeared, took Lucius's cloak, and proceeded to show him to the study, where he was told to wait, and help himself to a drink from the bar if he wanted.

Pouring himself a snifter of Old Ogden's Black Label Firewhisky, Lucius took a seat and waited.

It took about twenty minutes, but Lucius turned when he heard the doors opening. In the doorway, sitting in an antique wheelchair, was Narcissa's granduncle, the Lord Arcturus Black. At the age of ninety-three and having suffered from bouts of failing health for the last few years, some were surprised that Lord Black was even still alive.

For those who knew the man well, and through his wife, Lucius was one of those people, they weren't really surprised. Even though age, infirmity, and the death of his wife had left Arcturus unable to sire any more children, the old man was simply too stubborn to die with no clear heir to carry on the legacy of his house after his death.

If that meant clinging to life as a wheelchair-bound and decrepit old man who on some days couldn't even lift his own arms to feed himself, then so be it. He would not die and leave the Most Ancient and Noble House of Black to fall into extinction in the male line due to his grandson's criminal record which made him ineligible to inherit.

No, if Death wanted him, he would have to drag him out of the mortal world, kicking, screaming, flinging curses, and yelling obscenities.

Rolling into the room, Acturus moved over to the bar and fixed himself a glass of Ogden's Black—today was one of his good days— before turning to Lucius and asking in his tired, raspy voice, "What brings you here today, Lucius?"

"Well, I thought you'd want to know that Narcissa's and my son Draco is alive," Lucius stated.

"I did see the small notice in the Daily Prophet," Arcturus said, as he took a sip of his drink. "Cancelling his funeral services."

"Indeed. Well, long story short, he got into a physical altercation with his school rival, the Heir Potter, and attempted to apparate."

"Fused together did they?"

"Yes, how did you guess?"

"The same thing happened to two of my schoolmates back in my Hogwarts days," Arcturus said. "Unfortunately, they weren't found until after they'd already bled out from the wound leftover from their fusion."

"Ah. Well, fortunately for Mr. Potter and my son, they were found and healed by Luc Flamel before that could happen."

"Good," Arcturus said, as he raised his glass, before taking a sip. "Although I imagine they still have a pretty deep wound left behind. I may not be a healer, but even I know a wound that deep would not heal quickly."

"They did, but it's gone now as Albus Dumbledore's phoenix provided tears to heal them."

"Ah, well then, that's good," Arcturus said. "Now, why else did you come here Lucius? As much I appreciate the update on Draco's health since he does have Black blood in his veins—as does Heir Potter for that matter, although far more distant—I'm sure it wasn't the only reason you came here."

"Indeed, it wasn't. Mr. Potter's presumed death and the realization that he was still alive brought his father's old friends to visit. Remus Lupin and your grandson, Sirius Black."

"Ah, I see. Come to tell me that you've done your civic duty, Lucius? Contacted the authorities and had my house's last hope carted off to Azkaban? Although, I suppose Fudge would never let it get that far, as he issued that damn Kiss on sight order."

"Actually, no, that isn't why I'm here," Lucius said. "Narcissa would have castrated me if I did that… especially after she found out that Sirius is innocent of all the charges against him."

"What?" Arcturus asked as he sat up just a little bit straighter in his wheelchair.

"Well, as I understand it, Peter Pettigrew is an unregistered rat animagus. He's the one who killed the muggles that Sirius was accused of killing, before cutting off his finger, transforming, and disappearing down a sewer drain, leaving Sirius to take the blame."

Lucius paused here to take a sip of his drink, before he added, "And, interestingly, it would seem that Peter, not Sirius, was the secret keeper for the late Lord and Lady Potter, so he isn't guilty of that either."

"How was he ever convicted if he isn't guilty?" Arcturus asked.

He'd been out of the country on an extended vacation with his at the time terminally ill wife, Melania. They were checking things off her bucket list and Arcturus wasn't going to leave her side for anything.

It's not like he could have done much, considering that Sirius was already in Azkaban three months before the letter telling him what happened arrived in Australia, by which time Melania was on her deathbed.

"That's the truly infuriating part, Arcturus," Lucius said. "He never was."

"What?" Arcturus asked as he tightened his grip on his glass. "Lucius, are you telling me that my grandson spent twelve years in Azkaban for crimes that he not only didn't commit but was never even convicted of?"

"According to Mr. Potter and Remus Lupin, yes. They were both there along with Sirius and three of Mr. Potter's schoolfriends when Peter Pettigrew's deception was revealed and he admitted the truth. Sirius was never convicted because he was never even given a trial. He was just sent straight to Azkaban."

The reaction was slowed by Lord Black's age, but after a moment, the sound of glass shattering broke the silence of the room as he threw his glass into the nearby fireplace, as he shouted, "Sweet Circe's sagging tits! Heads will roll at the Ministry for this!"

Lucius nodded, even as he took his wand out of his cane and summoned a fresh glass of firewhisky for his wife's aged granduncle, who drank down the contents of the glass in almost one large gulp. It burned going down, but any discomfort from that was nothing in comparison to the burning rage that was consuming him.

Taking a deep and mildly labored breath, Arcturus asked, "What happened to Pettigrew? Is he still alive?"

"Yes, he's alive, unfortunately, however, he escaped for parts unknown. The night this all came out was a full moon and Remus, afraid that Sirius was going to try to kill Mr. Potter, failed to drink his final goblet full of Wolfsbane. His transformation as the moon rose was enough of a distraction to allow Peter to transform into his rat form and disappear again."

"Damn it," Arcturus said. "What about the other three witnesses you mentioned?"

"One of them won't be of any use now," Lucius said with a sigh. "It was Potter's friend Ron Weasley who didn't take him sharing a body with Draco very well. He's now rotting in a French prison on the orders of my house's senior lord for among other things, attempted line theft, as his actions almost killed Draco and Mr. Potter."

"Any testimony he could provide will be tainted by that," Arcturus said, as he pulled out his wand and summoned a bottle of sparkling water from the bar. Two glasses of Firewhisky this close together was about all he could handle without getting sloshed and he wanted to keep his wits about him. "Same with Lupin, due to his lycanthropy. Heir Potter's testimony should still be helpful, but what about the other two?"

"A muggleborn girl named Hermione Granger," Lucius said, a clear note of distaste in his tone. "And the Heir Longbottom."

"Good, good, that helps. The sworn eyewitness testimony of the heirs of two of Albion's oldest noble families will count for something."

"True, although without Peter, I doubt the Ministry will be very willing to listen."

Arcturus sighed. "You're right, although it should at the very least be enough to get the Kiss on sight order rescinded. I'll bring all the power the House of Black can muster down upon the Ministry if I have to."

"Well, you'll have House Malfoy's support," Lucius said. "And I'm sure you'll have House Potter's support too since Sirius is Mr. Potter's godfather."

Arcturus nodded absentmindedly, even as his brain started working overtime on laws and strategies he could use. He was a very successful barrister in his younger years, although he'd retired nearly thirty years ago.

Still, the stubbornness and drive that had kept him alive these last few years were now going to be devoted entirely to getting his grandson cleared once and for all. And woe to anyone who tried to get in his way.

-o-0-o-

To be continued…

Reminder, my Facebook link, is in my profile if you want to friend me there. There are other ways to contact me if you want to, including Twitter and email, but as many times as I've mentioned them in the closing notes of my fics, I don't think I have to anymore.


	6. Settling In

The Battle is Joined

By J.C. Vascardi

-o-0-o-

Like most of the chapters I've posted this year, this is not beta-read, so any mistakes are my own. If you notice any, feel free to point them out and I'll see about getting them fixed.

-o-0-o-

Chapter Six:

Settling In

-o-0-o-

"It's very… dark," Harry said, as he got his first look at Draco's bedroom, which in the back of his mind, he knew was their bedroom now. Looking around, however, he was very thankful for Draco's mum saying that some redecorating was in order, because honestly? Harry was pretty sure that if he spent any significant amount of time in this room he'd quickly become depressed.

"What do you mean dark?" Draco asked as he looked around. He, of course, saw nothing wrong with the room because he's the one who picked out the décor.

"Well, for example, while I don't mind the black marble wainscoting so much, when combined with the dark wood of the trim, the floor, the ceiling, and all the furniture it makes the room feel kind of depressing. And when you said it was decorated in shades of green, I didn't think you meant dark green, darker green, and green so dark it's almost black."

"I suppose, maybe it is a bit dark."

A laugh from behind them, had them turning to find Narcissa standing in the doorway. "Draco, a bit dark is an understatement. I let you decorate the room as you wished, but I've always thought it looks more like a cave than a bedroom. A richly decorated cave, yes, but still a cave."

Before anyone could say anything, Dobby popped into the room and bowed to Harry. "Dobby has fetched your belongings, Master Harry, including your owl, who was just returning from a hunt when Dobby arrived."

"Thank you, Dobby," Harry said. "That's all for now. I'll call if I need you."

-o-0-o-

Harry hesitated outside the door to the smaller bedroom that he and Draco would be sleeping in for the time being.

Noticing the stiffening of Harry's side of their body, Draco asked, "Something wrong, Potter?"

"I just realized that Hedwig is in there and she hasn't seen me since the accident. I was just worried that…" he trailed off.

Draco's first instinct was to make fun of Harry's fears, but then he thought better of it. Maybe it was watching their skin knit together as Fawkes cried on their abdomen and chest but Draco was coming to the realization that he had to stop antagonizing Harry.

Their new normal didn't allow for them to continue on according to their old paradigm. As much as he still hated it and wished it wasn't so, Harry was a part of him now. The literal other half of his body.

Making fun of his fears or fighting with him constantly wasn't going to do him any good. Sure, he might get a momentary rush of enjoyment, but that was likely to be quickly overshadowed by the fact that there were now a lot of things he couldn't do without Harry's help.

Like walking. Even with the crutches to add stability, Harry's cooperation was still necessary for Draco to go anywhere. Maybe it was time that he made the effort.

So, quashing his antagonism, he said, "I'm sure it'll be fine… Harry."

Harry's eyebrow quirked at this and a half-smile appeared on his face, as he said, "You called me Harry."

"Well, it is your name, isn't it?" Draco asked. Shaking his head, he said, "Maybe it was watching our skin knit or maybe it was Dokky calling us bodymates, I don't know. I guess I'm just realizing that whether we like it or not, we're in this together now, so antagonizing each other isn't in our best interests."

Harry was quiet for a moment, before he said, "Yeah, you're right. Thank you, Draco."

"For what? Calling you by your given name?"

Shaking his head, Harry said, "No, not just that. For trying to allay my fears about Hedwig."

"Well, I can sort of understand them. If I'm being honest, I'm a bit worried about how Adonis will react."

"Adonis?"

"My eagle owl. He's the one who delivers all of my mum's care packages to Hogwarts."

Nothing more was said, although Harry reached over and gave Draco's shoulder a quick and reassuring squeeze. The blond smiled at that, even as he reached out and grabbed the ornate crystal doorknob and turned it.

Moving into the room, Harry and Draco slowly approached Hedwig's cage the door of which was open, as the owl lounged inside. She looked up at their approach.

"Hey girl," Harry said with a smile. "As you can see I've changed a bit since you saw me last."

Hedwig just looked at Harry for a moment, let out a hoot, and then flew out of her cage to settle on his shoulder where she rubbed her head against Harry's cheek for a minute.

She then hopped down and perched on his arm where it was sitting on top of the crutch, turned to look at Draco, and stared at him, before letting out a reproachful hoot.

Harry grinned. "I think that's her telling you that if you hurt me, she'll peck your eyes out."

Hedwig hooted and seemed to nod her head in agreement.

It took a moment for Draco to find his voice, he looked at Harry and said, "Well, one more reason not to hurt you then, I guess. As if the whole I'd feel it thing wasn't enough."

Turning to Hedwig, Draco reached out a tentative hand and said, "Hi pretty girl. I'll do my best not to hurt Harry. I promise."

Hedwig seemed to be staring into Draco's very soul for a moment, before she nodded, gave his finger a very light nip, and then settled back into her cage.

With Hedwig dealt with, Harry and Draco moved over to where Dobby had placed Harry's trunk, on a luggage rack on the left side of the double bed which would allow them to sit on the bed and go through the contents.

Doing that, Harry reached over and undid the locks, before with some help from Draco lifted the lid and looked inside.

Draco's face scrunched up as he saw some of the contents.

"You're not very organized are you, Potter?"

"No, I guess not. Actually, I've been meaning to get a new trunk. Something a bit more fitting to my noble status."

"So why didn't you?"

"The Dursleys."

"Who or what are the Dursleys?" Harry was so busy laughing at that question, that it gave Draco a moment to think. So, before Harry could answer, he asked, "Wait, Madam Pomfrey mentioned them, didn't she?"

Sobering, Harry nodded. "Yes, she did. They've my muggle relatives. Aunt Petunia is my mum's sister. Her husband is Vernon and their son is Dudley. There's also Vernon's sister, Marge. They pretty much made my life before Hogwarts hell."

"Ah, okay. So why didn't you want to buy a better trunk?"

"Afraid that they'd steal it, I guess. Maybe try to sell it. I didn't want them to know how wealthy I actually am, because I didn't want them to try to get their hands on any of it, as my legal guardians."

"So that's why you dressed like a pauper all these years?"

"Yeah. All the clothes you've seen me wearing were Dudley's first. My aunt and uncle didn't want to spend any money on me, so they just gave me Dudley's old clothes when he outgrew them."

"Outgrew them? Po… Harry, sorry, it's a hard habit to break, some of the clothes I've seen you wearing over the years were way beyond too big for you. Hell, some of them you and I could probably have worn together before our fusion and they would still have been baggy."

"You're right, I can't deny that. When I first came to Hogwarts it was because of years of malnutrition. Obviously, I've filled out since then, but unlike Dudley, I did it in all the right places. Whereas I've been putting on muscle, he's just been putting on an excessive amount of fat."

Shaking his head, Harry added, "Of course, the way both he and my uncle eat, it's really not surprising. When my aunt isn't on a diet kick, they frequently have third or fourth helpings of everything during dinner every night, at least two, if not three, servings of dessert, and then they'll plop down in front of the television and each eat an entire family-size bag of crisps in one sitting."

Draco was quiet for a moment before he scowled and said, "They sound absolutely repulsive." After a second, he asked, "What's television?"

Reaching into his trunk, Harry grabbed his sketch pad and a pencil. Managing to flip the pad open to a blank page one-handed, he then balanced it on his and Draco's knees, while he drew a picture of a television.

Draco could only watch, with a look that was both curious but also awed. Not necessarily because of what Potter was drawing, but because of the skill and detail that he was doing it with.

It took a few minutes, as Potter drew and added details and shading in all the right places, before he held it up and said, "This is a television. It's a muggle invention that allows one to watch various programs, everything from news and information to entertainment."

Knowing that Draco would still need some sort of reference point, having grown up in the wizarding world, he said, "Think of it like going to the theatre to see a play, but not having to leave the comfort of your house. The play is recorded, which is kind of like a wizarding portrait in that the subject can move and talk, and then it's transmitted through the air and into people's televisions."

After a moment, Harry added, "Some programs are transmitted live. It's mostly the news that's done that way. Honestly, now that I think about it, it's like the Wizarding Wireless, but instead of only being able to hear the announcer's voice, you can also see their face, and the room they're in. Most programs though could have been recorded weeks, months, or even years earlier, depending on what it is."

"Okay," Draco said, drawing out the word a bit. After a minute, he added, "I can see why you opted for General Art for your required arts elective, Harry. You're quite good."

Each Hogwarts student started their time at Hogwarts taking six core classes—Charms, Defense Against the Dark Arts, Herbology, History of Magic, Potions, and Transfiguration—which they were required to take through the end of their fifth year.

Starting in their third years, however, each student had to pick a minimum of six elective classes to add to their schedules. There were four categories for the electives: arts, magic, scholastic, and other. Of the minimum six electives, each student was required to take at least one arts elective, one scholastic elective, and two magic electives, plus two additional electives from any of the four categories.

There were a total of nineteen different electives available for students in third through fifth year, so between them and the six core classes, it was impossible to take all of them, as each student was limited to taking seventeen total classes.

Well, you could take more, as Hermione did this past year when she signed up for twenty-four of the twenty-five available classes. The only one she didn't sign up for being Magical Games and Sports, which was the sole offering in the other category. But then considering it was an entirely non-academic class with no OWL or NEWT, in which students just played various wizarding games and sports, nobody who knew her was surprised.

Hermione was issued a Time-Turner to take all the extra classes and while it proved useful at the end of the year for saving both Sirius and Buckbeak, by then she'd had enough and dropped enough classes to not need it any longer. She'd realized that she simply couldn't keep up her normal high standards for studying and still have enough time to eat, sleep, and relax with her friends with twenty-four classes in her schedule.

"Thanks," Harry said. "I suppose we do need to talk about our schedule. It's Monday and Professor Dumbledore said he'd be by tomorrow for our decisions."

Draco nodded. "Yes, you're right. Well, we've got six classes for sure, due to the cores. The real problem comes from the electives because while we're both in some of them, we've also both taken different electives."

"Well, we've got Wizarding Law, Magical Finance, Magical Languages, Care of Magical Creatures, and Dark Arts in common. I assume we can agree on keeping all of them?"

Many were genuinely surprised when Harry Potter signed up for the Dark Arts elective at Hogwarts. He'd reasoned, however, that most of the Slytherins would be taking it and he wanted to understand the subject that they might use against him.

Well, that, and he figured it would be useful to know what Voldemort might throw at him since he'd already faced him three times by that point. Once as a defenseless baby, and then again at the end of his first and second years.

"Well, I'm not sure about Care of Magical Creatures," Draco said. "I only took it to satisfy one of my two magical elective requirements, but aren't you taking all five of the available magical electives?"

"Yeah, I'm taking Battlefield Medicine, Care of Magical Creatures, Dark Arts, Divination, and Wizarding Home Economics," Harry confirmed. "And while I'm willing to drop Divination because I'm clearly not a seer and I suck at the subject, I'd prefer to keep Care."

Draco groaned. "That class almost killed me!"

"Don't be dramatic, Draco, it was just a scratch. One which you wouldn't have even gotten at all if you hadn't decided to be an arrogant jackarse."

"Arrogant jackarse?" Draco asked, clearly angered by that description.

Harry was having none of it, however, as he asked, "And how pray tell would you describe it? You, at the age of only thirteen, decided that you knew better than our professor. You remember him, right? Newton Scamander? The famed magizoologist who's like seven times your age and pioneered the field of magizoology?"

After a second's pause, Harry added, "He wrote the bloody textbook for Merlin's sake! So, what exactly would you call completely disregarding his instructions on how to safely approach a hippogriff?"

Draco was quiet for a moment before he sighed. "Okay, okay I get it. It was stupid and arrogant. Although I still take issue with the jackarse description."

Shaking his head, "Whatever. I'm not dropping Care. In fact, other than Divination, I'm not dropping any of my electives."

"Fine, I guess I can suffer through Wizarding Home Economics, and I suppose Battlefield Medicine could be useful, although I'd prefer to avoid battlefields."

"So would I, honestly, but if my last three years of Hogwarts are anything to go by, then that's not going to happen."

Draco decided to let that conversation drop and go back to the matter at hand. "Okay, the cores, our shared electives, plus Battle Med and Wiz Ec. That puts us at thirteen total. So, we've got room for four more without needing a Time-Turner."

"I'd really prefer not to have to use one, personally. I saw the strain it took on Hermione last year."

Draco nodded but chose not to comment on Hermione. He didn't want to start a fight.

Instead, he said, "I suppose you're going to want to keep taking General Art and considering how good you are, well, it would be a shame not to foster that kind of talent."

"You know, Draco, I think that may well be the nicest thing you've ever said to me. In fact, you giving me a compliment? I think I just might have a heart attack."

Shaking his head, Draco said, "Yeah, ah, please don't. It's my heart too now and I could do without a heart attack, thanks."

Harry grinned. "Oh don't worry it's just a figure of speech. I have no intention of having a heart attack now or in the future. Anyway, you're right, I would like to keep taking General Art." He paused here and asked, "You were taking Instrumental Music for your arts requirement weren't you?"

Draco nodded even as his face fell. "Yes, and I'm probably going to be pants at it now. I play the piano and the violin, but both require two hands."

"I've always wanted to learn an instrument," Harry admitted. "I never took it up because I knew I wouldn't be able to get any practice time in at the Dursleys. At least sketching was something I could do without making any noise and bothering them."

"You've never heard of a Silencing Charm?"

Rolling his eyes, Harry said, "Of course I have, Draco. But I lived in the muggle world, remember? Due to the Trace, the Ministry couldn't write off any magic they detected as being cast by my parents."

"And there was nowhere you could go to practice where they wouldn't hear you?"

"Oh there were probably a few places," Harry answered. "But, I had to be careful to never be gone for too long, lest I not do a chore they wanted me to do. Although once I started filling out they were a bit timider in giving me tasks."

"What kind of tasks?"

"Mostly the cooking and gardening, which if I'm being honest, I didn't mind because I actually enjoy them. The latter one is why I've got such a good tan because I spent a lot of time out in the sun tending Aunt Petunia's garden. Anyway, back to the subject at hand, since I've always wanted to learn anyway, if playing makes you happy, then I'm willing to try to learn."

"It does," Draco said, as he smiled.

Harry would be lying if he said that seeing Draco smile didn't throw him for a loop since he couldn't remember ever seeing it before. But then again he wasn't around him all the time… although recent circumstances had definitely taken care of that issue.

"Well, that puts us at fifteen," Harry said. "You're taking Ancient Runes and Arithmancy, right?"

Draco nodded.

"Okay, well, I guess those two will put us at seventeen," Harry said. "I'm a year behind on both, but I'm sure Hermione will be willing to help me study." With a wry grin, he added, "And I guess I've got a built-in study partner and tutor now."

Draco raised an eyebrow at this as he asked, "Just what makes you think that I'm going to help you study?"

"Because we can't get away from each other," Harry answered. "So, if I screw up, it reflects badly on you."

"There's plenty of sets of conjoined twins that don't excel at the same subjects."

"I know there are a few sets at Hogwarts," Harry said since he'd seen them. "But how many are as closely connected as we are?"

Draco sighed. While he was sure he didn't know every set of conjoined twins currently attending Hogwarts, among those he was aware of, there wasn't a single pair who shared a single two-headed body between them. "Okay, you have a point."

Left unsaid was the fact that Draco knew he'd have to help Harry study because he knew that conjoined or not, Professors Vector and Babbling wouldn't stand for Harry just sitting in their classrooms and not learning anything.

"So, now that we've got our schedule worked out, I guess we can go through your trunk and trash all of your hideous clothes. Cause, I'm sorry, Harry but hell will freeze over before I ever agree to wear your cousin's cast-offs."

"Can't say that I blame you there," Harry said, as he and Draco leaned forward slightly to start going through the trunk. "There are a couple of things I'm keeping, however."

"Like what?" Draco asked, as he picked up an old shirt by two fingers and looked at it with a look of complete disgust on his face.

"That can go on the trash pile," Harry said as he glanced over at what Draco was holding before he pulled out one of his red and gold Gryffindor ties. "This I'll keep though because it's one part of my school uniform that I can still wear."

"Okay, I'll grant you that. I suppose things like ties and scarves can be kept. Although outside of things that are color-coded by house, and especially for anything that comes in pairs, we should coordinate."

Harry nodded but remained silent as he removed one of the jumpers that Mrs. Weasley had knitted for him and reluctantly placed it on the trash pile. He didn't want to, but he couldn't justify keeping it when he knew it wouldn't fit properly anymore. It only had one neck opening, after all, which wasn't big enough for both his and Draco's heads to fit through.

Finding the corner of an item that looked like it was made of shimmering liquid silver, Harry sighed. A part of him didn't want to reveal its existence to Draco, but he knew that unless he was going to forego wearing it ever again, that would be impossible.

"This is definitely going on the keep pile," Harry said, as he pulled it out from under a pair of Dudley's old jeans.

As he looked over at what Harry was holding, Draco's eyes widened as he asked, "Is that what I think it is?"

Harry grinned. "Well, I guess that depends. If you think that I could throw it over your head and pretend you're not there because I couldn't see you anymore, then yes, it is what you think it is."

Draco scowled at Harry, before he asked, "Where did you even get an invisibility cloak from? They're very rare and incredibly expensive."

Harry was quiet for a moment, before he said, "What I'm about to say is a Potter family secret, so the oath you swore applies."

Draco nodded, as he reached out and ran his hand over the shimmering fabric.

"It's a Potter family heirloom, passed down through the generations since the early to mid-1300s."

Shaking his head, Draco said, "That's not possible. Invisibility cloaks don't last for that long. There are a couple different ways they can be made, one is weaving it from the hair of a demiguise, or by enchanting a regular cloak with an exceptionally strong Disillusionment Charm or Bedazzling Hex. In both cases, however, they eventually turn opaque and lose their ability to make anything invisible."

"Well this one is obviously the exception," Harry said, as he reached over and clamped his hand over Draco's mouth, sensing the blond was going to argue. "The cloak has always been kept a secret, so it makes sense that there's no mention of the cloak that defies what is known to be true about others like it."

Removing his hand, he added, "However, I assure you, this is the same cloak that's been handed down from generation to generation in the Potter family for the last six hundred years."

"Well, it certainly doesn't look or feel like it's made from demiguise hair," Draco said, as he ran his hand over it. "Honestly, I can't identify what material its made from."

"You want to try it on?"

Draco nodded as Harry picked up the cloak and unfurled it… only to be very surprised by what he saw.

"Well, that's new," Harry said as he looked at the cloak.

"What is?"

"There's a second hood. In the years I've owned it, it's never had more than one. Even when Ron, Hermione, and I all used to get under it back in first year, it still only had one hood."

"It's clearly a very powerful artifact," Draco said. "If I had to guess, it's probably imbued with auto-resizing charms which will change the length and size of it based on the needs of the wearer. There are variants of the standard auto-resizing charms which will account for conjoined twins."

"Well, I suppose that would be useful. As they seem to be far more common in the wizarding world, there's probably been several conjoined Potter heirs over the centuries."

Draco nodded. "Yes, most likely. As for why the spells didn't kick in when you shared it with Weasley and Granger it would be because they're separate people that you don't share flesh and bones with. Generally speaking, clothing is not intended to be worn by more than one person at a time, so the auto-resizing charms don't activate unless the second person wearing a certain article of clothing is conjoined."

"Well, I guess whatever the reason, its useful," Harry said. "Honestly, I wasn't looking forward to trying to get the ties around both of our necks. Wasn't even sure if the hood would cover both of our heads entirely."

"True and there's not much point in having an invisibility cloak that doesn't entirely cover the wearer."

Nothing more was said for a few moments, as Harry and Draco got the cloak over their shoulders and then helped each other tie the ties on each of their hoods. Grabbing their crutches they then stood up and made their way over to the floor-length mirror as a pair of what looked like floating heads.

Draco grinned as he saw his reflection. "Wicked."

"Tell me about it," Harry agreed, as a thought came to him. "Draco, could you undo the straps on my crutch?"

Not asking why, Draco complied, as Harry leaned his crutch against the nearby armoire. With his arm free, he then reached up and pulled his hood over his head, making it vanish completely. He then reached between his and Draco's heads and got a hold on the new, second hood and pulled it up over the blond's head.

"Well, this is interesting," Harry said. "Every other time I'd used the cloak I could still see Ron and Hermione, as they were under the cloak with me. I can still see our body when I look down, but I can't see your head, probably because of the second hood covering it."

With a nod, Draco said, "Same here, Harry. Well, that's useful. I guess if we want some privacy from one another, we can just put the cloak on and voila, instant privacy in that we can't see the other."

"True, although the extent of that privacy is still limited and it can't be obtained in all situations." Harry could feel his cheeks heating up as he added, "Although I suppose for certain activities of an intimate nature, it might be nice. Like if one of us gets a boyfriend, between the cloak and a Silencing Charm, we can at least create the illusion of only one of us being present during sex."

"There is that, yes," Draco said, as he could feel himself blushing a bit. "Though we'll still be able to feel the act and unless we're bottoming, then the boyfriend would still be able to feel the second cock."

"Second cock?" a familiar voice asked from behind them, prompting Harry and Draco to look in the mirror and see Sirius's grinning face reflected in the mirror. Somehow he'd managed to sneak in without either of them noticing.

Even though they were completely invisible, they'd still been talking aloud and since Sirius knew about James's cloak, he didn't question why he couldn't see them and just followed the sound of their voices until he was standing about two feet behind them.

Both boys could feel their faces heating up as Harry reached up and pushed his hood down. Sirius quirked an eyebrow at this, even as Harry reached over the pushed Draco's hood down.

"I'm very familiar with your father's cloak, Harry, and I never knew it to have two hoods before."

Harry nodded, as he explained what he and Draco thought was the reason for that. Sirius looked thoughtful for a moment before he nodded and agreed that was probably the reason. As the boys removed the cloak and made their way back over to the bed, Sirius grinned and asked, "So, what's this about a second cock?"

Harry and Draco both groaned. It was Harry who answered.

"Our fusion wasn't entirely complete. Our heads, cocks, and testicles were left alone, so, it's a little more crowded down there than it was."

"Wow, interesting," Sirius said. "Do you know if you retained separate reproductive systems?"

Draco nodded. "According to Luc, they're partially separate. We'll both be able to sire children upon our future husbands that belong to only one of us and them. When it comes to bearing children, however, any children that we have that way will have three parents, as the child will belong to both Harry and I, plus the sire."

Sirius nodded, as he said, "Well, good to know I suppose. For some time in the future. Neither of you is dating anyone, right?"

"No, I'm not," Harry answered, as he whispered, "I'm still a virgin."

"I'm not dating anyone either," Draco revealed. "Unlike Harry, however, I am not a virgin."

"Who?" Harry asked.

Draco scoffed. "A gentleman doesn't kiss and tell, Harry."

"We share an arse, Draco, and our cocks are right next to each other, so if you're going to be with anyone, it's going to be kind of hard for you to keep it from me."

Sirius grinned. "My godson does have a point, Draco."

Draco sighed. "Fine, I've done some fooling around with two of my dorm mates."

Harry looked horrified at this as he said, "Please tell me it wasn't Crabbe and Goyle."

Draco's eyes widened at this as he asked, "What? Eww! No way! I'd take a vow of celibacy before I'd sleep with those brutes. I like my lovers to have brains thank you, and Greg and Vince barely have one brain between them. Besides, I'd probably suffocate beneath them."

Harry nodded, as he went through the Slytherins in their year and said, "Well, then I'm assuming it was Blaise Zabini and Theo Nott."

"Nice process of elimination there, Harry," Draco drawled.

Sirius just shook his head, as he said, "Anyway, Narcissa asked me to come to get you, as we're going shopping. She owl ordered a hooded cloak that you could wear to conceal your faces while out on Diagon Alley. It just arrived. Narcissa has it with her in the drawing room."

Harry and Draco nodded, as they removed the invisibility cloak and made their way back over to where Harry's trunk was and stowed it away, locking it once the lid was closed.

"I think maybe I'll buy a new trunk while I'm in the alley," Harry said. "Something a bit more fitting for a courtesy Earl."

-o-0-o-

To be continued…

So, I was going to include the shopping trip in this chapter, but I figured this was already over five-thousand words and that was good enough for the time being. What with the social distancing and many staying inside due to the current global pandemic, I figured I'd do my small part by adding to the available reading material. Stay safe, everyone.


	7. Diagon Alley

The Battle is Joined

By J.C. Vascardi

-o-0-o-

Chapter Seven:

Diagon Alley

-o-0-o-

Due in part to their status as nobility, but more down to their large vault balances, Narcissa, Harry, Draco, and Sirius were allowed to Floo directly into Gringotts Wizarding Bank.

Sirius didn't bother with his animagus form, because it was a magically-backed ironclad agreement in the treaty that ended the last goblin war that all Gringotts branch offices were the sovereign territory of the Goblin Nation, with protections on par with that of an official foreign embassy.

Meaning that as long as Sirius remained inside the walls of the bank, he could walk around as himself, without fear of reprisal or arrest, as he was considered to be a guest of the Goblin Nation and was afforded their full protection, as a result.

Any attempt by the Ministry to arrest or detain him on Gringotts property would be seen as a direct challenge to their sovereignty. And seeing as how the only way that the goblins would respond to such an affront was an immediate declaration of war, even the most stupid Auror on the Ministry's payroll wouldn't risk it if they valued their limbs, their life, and their livelihood.

The goblins could allow the Ministry into Gringotts to make an arrest, but whether or not they allowed it depended entirely upon the bank balance of the person that was due to be arrested. And as a Black, Sirius was wealthy enough that the goblins would not revoke their protection unless he committed a crime against them, which he had never done, so his safety was assured.

He had often mused that it was too bad that he couldn't simply live at Gringotts. Sadly for him, however, despite the numerous services that Gringotts provided to their customers, far more than any bank in the muggle world did, lodging was not one of them.

Remus was also going to be accompanying them on their shopping trip, but since he wasn't a member of a noble family and had a paltry amount of coin in his vault, he wasn't afforded Floo access to Gringotts' exclusive VIP Lobby. So, he'd be meeting up with them in the main lobby after they'd finished their business at the bank.

The double face-concealing hoods of the cloak that Narcissa had made for Harry and Draco were up as they took a seat in the large lounge area at the center of the room.

"Good afternoon, Lady Malfoy," a goblin said, as he approached and spoke to her first, since as the Marchioness of Coleford, she outranked Sirius, especially since due to his criminal record, upon his father's death, he'd never officially taken up the status of Black Heir and the courtesy title of Earl of Alnwick that went with it. "I trust you wish to meet with the Malfoy family's account manager?"

Narcissa nodded. "Yes, thank you."

Turning to Sirius, the goblin asked, "The Black manager, Mr. Black?"

"No, I'm only accompanying my cousin today," Sirius said. Seeing as how he couldn't leave the bank without first shifting into his animagus form, he wouldn't be doing any shopping and thus didn't really have a need to visit his vault to get any galleons.

He hated it, but he had hope that maybe it would be over sooner rather than later. Especially after Lucius had returned briefly to Malfoy Manor and told him about his meeting at Arlington Grange.

"And you, sirs?" the goblin asked as he turned to Harry and Draco.

They kept their hoods up and remained silent, but they did hold out their hands to allow the goblin to inspect the rings on their fingers. The goblin looked surprised by their attire and there only being one body between them, but didn't comment.

Since he was already going to fetch the Malfoy account manager, the goblin simply asked without naming names if Harry wanted to see his, prompting a nod. The goblin promptly left them to inform the requested managers that the clients to see.

About ten minutes later, the four of them were shown into a conference room where they found Scarclaw and Gragnast—the Potter and Malfoy account managers respectively—already seated at the table.

"You can remove your hoods now, Heir Malfoy, Heir Potter," Gragnast said.

Scarclaw nodded. "I must admit some curiosity as to your sudden closeness."

Draco and Harry put their hoods down, as Harry said, "An apparition attempt gone horribly wrong."

Gragnast nodded. "Ah, I see. That explains why your funeral services were canceled. So, what can Gringotts' do for you today?"

"For obvious reasons," Harry answered, "I wanted to confirm that moving forward, all financial matters concerning House Potter can be discussed in front of Draco."

"That's doable," Scarclaw said, as he made a notation in the file in front of him. "As you are the last of your line, Heir Potter, you can grant that permission despite not being the lord and head of your family for three more years."

Harry nodded but remained silent as Narcissa pulled a sealed envelope out of the folds of her cloak and handed it to Gragnast. "And here is my husband's signed permission for financial matters involving Draco to be discussed in front of Heir Potter. He had important business to attend to elsewhere or he would have been here."

"Very well," Gragnast said as he slit open the missive, read it briefly, and then added it to the Malfoy account files. "Is there anything else that Gringotts can assist you with today?"

"Yes, some questions are arising from my son's fusion with Heir Potter which my husband and I would like answers to. We believe we can get those answers by having them undergo the Ritual of Blood Inheritance."

"I see," Scarclaw said, as he turned to the boys and addressed them. "Is it your wish to undergo this ritual? Regardless of Lord and Lady Malfoy's wishes, they cannot legally compel you to do so."

"Yes, you must both consent of your own volition," Gragnast added.

Looking over at his mother, Draco asked, "And what if the results aren't what you're hoping for."

"Draco, as far as your father and I are concerned, the test results are irrelevant. We will always love and adore you, mon petit dragon, and nothing will change that."

"Even this?" Draco asked as he motioned towards Harry's half of their shared body.

"Even that. You are our son and that will never change. It'll be an adjustment for us to get used to having Harry around, but your father and I would do anything for you, mon petit dragon. Deep down in your heart, you know that."

"So why ask for this test?" Harry asked.

"The fusion doesn't change the way that Lucius and I feel about our son, Harry," Narcissa said. "We will always love him and we will do our best to accept you as a part of our family since for better or worse you are a permanent fixture in our son's life."

Narcissa sighed and then said, "However, Lucius and I grew up among pureblood culture. We know how others will view this and this test could depending on the results, make it easier for them to accept not only Draco but you as well, Harry. I trust that you both are in favor of anything which could make your lives moving forward easier, yes?"

Draco nodded. "Yes, I think I can safely speak for Harry when I say that we would like that."

"Yes, easier would be good," Harry said. "I've come to expect the opposite but I certainly wouldn't complain about easier."

Clearing his throat, Scarclaw said, "Understand that this is not an undertaking which will be finished quickly in any event. Even with magic, it can take months for the full results of a Ritual of Blood Inheritance to be ready."

"Preliminary results can be ready in as little as twenty-four hours," Gragnast said. "Those would answer the questions which I imagine the Lord and Lady Malfoy would most like answers to. Beyond that, however, one must simply wait."

"Why would it takes months for the full results?" Harry asked.

It was Sirius who answered. "Because the ritual draws your complete family tree or at least however many generations you ask for, Harry. How far that goes back varies from person to person, but for most ancient lines such as the Potters or the Malfoys, it could conceivably go back over a thousand years or more."

Narcissa smiled and nodded. "Yes, even with magic it takes a long time to draw such a complete family history. Especially since this spell doesn't just trace the history of one family, but that of every single branch family that has ever married into the line."

"It's called the Ritual of Blood Inheritance for a reason, Heir Potter," Scarclaw said. "When it's all finished, it will show a complete family history and whether or not a person has the correct bloodline to claim a connection to some of the oldest bloodlines in Albion and beyond. Whether they just want bragging rights or wish to restore a dormant house to glory is up to them."

"Greed can also be a motivating factor, as anyone who proved they did have the right bloodline could potentially claim the long-dormant vaults of some of Albion's most ancient families," Gragnast said. "Although most people do not take the risk simply because as you can imagine a ritual that can take over a year for the results to be ready is not cheap."

"Indeed it's not," Scarclaw said. "Although, while I'm unfamiliar with the current state of the Malfoy vaults, I can say with certainty that the Potter vaults can more than afford the cost."

"The Malfoy vaults are similarly healthy," Gragnast said. "As for the ritual, it's entirely possible to pay the money and do the ritual only to find out that you're the descendant of a poor farmer who died without a knut to their name. Or it could reveal a fortune that dwarves that of all the currently extant noble families of Albion and Hibernia combined."

"It's a crapshoot, in other words," Sirius said. "You might get lucky and strike it filthy rich. Or you might strikeout."

"Even those of noble blood can find that they're descended from a poor farmer," Narcissa added. "It might be the great-grandson of the farmer who got himself ennobled and they've been nobility ever since, but that doesn't change what the family was before that."

"One advantage of doing the ritual, however," Scarclaw said, "is that if it does reveal some connection to an ancient line, say one of the thirty-seven noble houses that are currently extinct in their male lines, then the person who did the ritual is automatically moved to the front of the inheritance line as the magically recognized male-line heir, no matter how distant their claim through the female-line might have been prior."

Gragnast nodded. "It's the reward for shelling out a small fortune to do the test. Of course, those who do the ritual are not required to actually restore the family and they can, if they so choose, relinquish claims granted to them by the ritual."

"Why would anyone relinquish the claims granted to them?" Draco asked.

"Depending on how far back one goes," Gragnast answered, "it is possible for one to find enough connections to inherit claims on several houses and their associated titles. Some people might decide that they'll only keep the highest and most prestigious of those and relinquish the lower houses and titles, thus allowing somebody else to take those up if they do the ritual and find the necessary connection."

Draco nodded, satisfied with that answer, as Harry asked, "How much does the test actually cost?"

The two goblins looked at each other, before Scarclaw said, "There's a base fee of 100 galleons upfront, which includes an ancestry scroll going back twenty generations."

"By contrast, all the noble houses have a family tapestry that records the ten most recent generations," Sirius said. "The oldest generation disappears from the tapestry upon the birth of the newest one. Otherwise, the tapestry would be so large that it'd be impossible to house it."

"You can opt to go further back," Scarclaw said. "It's normally an additional 60 galleons per ten generations over twenty, but since you're both nobility and among the bank's wealthiest clients, we can increase it to seventeen generations for 60. Furthermore, there's a fee of one galleon per day, starting the day after the Ritual is performed, until the ancestry scroll is finished, although again for the nobility and our wealthiest clients, we can waive the daily fee after one year."

Doing some calculations, Scarclaw said, "So, if for example you wanted an extra thirty-four generations on top of the standard twenty and that took more than a year to finish, you'd be paying a total of 585 galleons."

Sirius whistled, as the two goblins had a small whispered conference before they nodded and Scarclaw said, "Round it up to an even 600 and we'll tack on the extra sixteen generations to bring you up to an even fifty. So, in total the ritual would trace your ancestries back seventy generations."

Gragnast nodded his head as he said, "Going back that far is almost a guarantee that it will take over a year for the final results. The daily fee will be automatically deducted from your vaults each day until the scroll is finished."

Harry and Draco nodded as they contemplated the price. They were both going over the expenditure in their heads. As they did so, they both realized within seconds of one another that as pricey as 600 galleons was, they could both easily afford it.

Clearing his throat, Gragnast said, "Doing the ritual also comes with the explicit agreement that Gringotts will get 10% of any monetary assets acquired as a result of the ritual as a finder's fee, while the account manager of the person who did the ritual receives an additional 5% as their commission."

"Beyond the preliminary results that are provided after 24 hours," Scarclaw added, "the rest of the results cannot be accessed or read until such time that the magic indicates that the ancestry scroll is finished."

"What's included in the preliminary results?" Draco asked.

Gragnast said, "Blood status, your ancestry chart for immediate family only—spouses, parents, and siblings, plus your four grandparents and eight great-grandparents—any magical abilities that are inherent in your bloodline, which can be dormant or active, and finally, a list of any academic subjects if any, that you have a natural inclination for and will thus find easier."

Stroking his beard, Scarclaw added, "The preliminary results will also give an estimate for when the scroll will be finished and the final results ready, based upon the options selected going into it."

Taking a deep breath, Harry said, "Oh what the hell, I'll take the plunge. I'll do the Ritual, with the deal for 600 galleons that you laid out."

Turning his head to look at his mother for a moment, who nodded her head, Draco then turned to Gragnast and said, "Same for me."

"Excellent," Scarclaw said. "Then we'll call for one of the ritualists and get this done."

It was an hour later when Harry and Draco left the bank, each having to part with seven drops of blood, a vial of their saliva, a strand of their hair, and a small sliver of their skin. The ritual usually only required blood, but due to the accident, the ritualist determined that the saliva, hair, and skin samples would help to differentiate between Harry and Draco better than the blood pumped through their single heart could.

-o-0-o-

Leaving the bank with Narcissa, Remus, and Sirius, now in his animagus form, the group made their way first to Twillfitt & Tatting's. Upon seeing Lady Malfoy enter the shop, the clerk smiled and held back the curtain behind the cash register.

It led to a hallway where regular customers were not allowed, but employees and those deemed important enough for Master Tailors Wolfgang Twillfitt and Johann Tatting to see in person were the exceptions to the rule.

Entering the private salon where the two master tailors met with clients, Wolfgang smiled at Narcissa and said, "Ah, Lady Malfoy, what a pleasant surprise."

"Yes, my dear lady," Johann said. "How can we be of service?"

"This is not yet public knowledge," Narcissa replied. "However, my son, Draco, was involved in a serious splinching accident."

Putting down his hood, Draco said, "Serious enough that as you can see I now share a single two-headed body."

Wolfgang nodded. "Indeed. May I ask with whom?"

Putting down his own hood, Harry said, "With me."

"Masters Twillfitt and Tatting," Narcissa said, "may I present my son's bodymate, Heir Harry Potter, Earl of Brynmoor."

"It's a pleasure to meet you, Heir Potter," Johann said.

"Please, just call me Harry."

"As you wish," Wolfgang said, before rubbing his hands together. "I imagine you're here because you need a new wardrobe."

Draco nodded. "Indeed. One of our healers, Luc Flamel, was kind enough to alter some of his clothes for us to wear, but moving forward we need new clothes to accommodate for our new situation."

"Yes," Johann said, as he motioned towards one of the nearby platforms and said, "Well, if you could take off your cloak and step up on the platform, we'll get started on your measurements."

As they did that, Harry said, "I do plan on making sure that Draco does some weight-training and exercise so that his side of our shared body reaches the same state of fitness that mine has, so I trust the Auto-Resizing Charms can handle that?"

Wolfgang nodded. "Indeed, Harry, that will not be a problem. Since we'll have your measurements, we can easily adjust the charms to be able to resize as necessary as Draco's fitness level increases."

"Yes, we'll add a couple of extra inches of leeway to the charms," Johann said. "In case you put on any more muscle, Harry."

Both boys nodded before Draco blushed and said, "Oh and um, while I know that wizard space charms are commonplace in trouser crotches, you might want to put some extra space beyond what I'd had previously."

Sirius barked and wagged his tail at this, as Narcissa smiled knowingly. Remus, however, looked confused as he asked, "Am I missing something?"

It was Harry's turn to blush, as he said, "Well Draco's and my joining wasn't entirely complete. While we share pretty much everything now, our heads and private parts are still separate."

"Double that of a single person, I take it?" Johann asked.

Draco nodded. "Yes, two cocks, four testicles, completely separate, without about two or three inches between them."

"Well, we can easily deal with that," Wolfgang said and Johann nodded, as the boys stepped up onto the platform and a magical tape measure began moving around taking their measurements.

-o-0-o-

Just over an hour later, the group left the tailor's shop. There had been a few disagreements that had to be worked out between the two, including such things as color and style. Draco preferred green, silver, and black, with some white thrown in where necessary, in a more formal style while Harry preferred a more relaxed style.

As for colors, Harry was far more open to different colors, although he wasn't willing to allow their clothes to be entirely green, silver, black, or white. A compromise was reached in that some of their clothes would be magical fusions that were one color on Harry's side and a different, yet complimenting color on Draco's side.

There would also be several items with solid colors that would be the same for both of them, in a wider variety than Draco's preference. As Narcissa pointed out, however, Draco didn't have the right to limit the colors of the clothes they wore to only his preferences, as that wouldn't be fair to Harry.

Just as it wouldn't have been fair for Harry to insist that they were only going to wear his favorite colors and none of Draco's.

The same logic applied to the style and cut of their clothing, which ended up being a fairly even mix between formal and casual, including several outfits that were a happy medium between the two.

Luc sent them home with enough of his altered clothes to last them a week and a half without wearing the same outfit twice, so the tailors promised to have the first batch of the simpler outfits finished within that time.

The more formal and intricately designed clothes would take longer, however, and require additional fittings, although, for their noble clients, both tailors were willing to do them outside of their shop.

Arriving at their next destination, Narcissa tapped the bell on the front counter. A moment later, a rolling ladder moved into view with Lord Garrick Ollivander on it.

"Ah, Lady Malfoy, always a pleasure," Garrick said as he climbed down the ladder and came into the front area of his shop. Greeting everyone, in turn, his eyes lingering on the hooded twins who seemed familiar, even if he couldn't place them without being able to see their faces.

"And what brings you to my shop?" Garrick asked.

"My son needs a new wand, Your Grace," Narcissa answered, paying deference to the fact that Garrick was a Duke and thus outranked her.

"Your son?" Garrick asked. "I don't see Draco here, unless…"

"I'm right here, Your Grace," Draco said, as he lifted the hood far enough for the aged wandmaker to see his face.

Unlike in the tailor shop where they'd been in a back room where they could be reasonably sure of privacy, Draco kept his hook up in case anybody else came into the shop.

While the news that Harry and Draco were still alive would be going out soon, it was agreed that they'd keep their shared body on a need to know basis for the time being. At least until they got more comfortable with it themselves or until the week before the new school year began, whichever came first.

"So, Draco, was it you or your new friend who screwed up an apparition attempt?"

"It was Draco," Harry said, as he lifted his hood far enough for the wandmaker to see his face.

"Interesting, very interesting," Garrick said, before he grabbed a box, seemingly at random, and took out a wand. "Try this one."

Taking the offered wand, Draco waved it.

One the of fresh roses in a vase on the front counter promptly burst into flames.

"Apparently not," Garrick said as he took it back and put it away.

Draco tried three more wands before Garrick headed into his backroom and came back with a wand that wasn't in a box… he'd just finished making it less than an hour ago and hadn't had a chance to put it one yet.

Garrick didn't say anything as he handed the wand to Draco. Almost the moment the wand was in the blond's hand, the entire left side of Draco's and Harry's body lit up with.

"Hawthorn and phoenix feather, eleven inches," Garrick revealed. "Though I suppose given your new situation, it's not that surprising."

"Your Grace?" Draco asked.

"The phoenix whose tail feather is in your new wand," Garrick answered, "has given only two other feathers. I suppose it makes sense that you would be destined for this wand when it's brother— holly and phoenix, also eleven inches—is wielded by the person you now share a body with."

Harry perked up at this, as Draco turned and looked at him for a moment, before looking back at the wandmaker and asking, "And the third feather?"

"I remember every wand I've ever sold, Mr. Malfoy," Garrick said. "The third feather resides in a thirteen and a half inch wand made of yew… the very same wand that gave Mr. Potter his scar."

When nobody spoke, Garrick said, "As I told Mr. Potter on his first visit to my shop, I think we must expect great things from you, Mr. Malfoy. After all, He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named did great things… terrible things… but great."

"Ever since you said that to me three years ago, I've always wondered what you meant by it, sir," Harry said. "I mean, it sounds like you admire what he did."

Garrick shook his head. "Do not misunderstand me, Harry. When I say great I'm referring to the quantity of his actions, not the quality. I do not now, nor will I ever, support a person who tortures and murders as easily as they breathe."

Garrick paused, as his expression morphed into a haunted visage of deep sadness, and added, "My own wife and son were among those that He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named tortured and murdered. So no, Harry, I respect the quantity of the feats of magic done with a wand I crafted, some of which many had thought impossible, but not the quality. Never the quality."

-o-0-o-

The group continued moving around to various stores, buying a few things here and there. As they left Flourish and Blotts, Harry and Draco agreed that their next stop would be Eeylops Owl Emporium, as they were both running low on treats for Hedwig and Adonis.

Reaching the store, however, they found it closed. A sign in the window stated that the owner had gone bird watching in Ireland and would be back next week.

"They were closed during the Christmas holidays in 1992 for the same reason," Draco said. "Only then it was in Wales, I think."

"Seems a rather barmy reason to close your store," Harry said. "Especially during a high traffic period where you're likely to make a lot of sales. Even if the owner wanted to go bird-watching, one would think they'd have a few trusted employees who could run the store in their absence."

"Indeed, one would think," Remus agreed.

"Well, I guess we'll have to visit the Magical Menagerie," Draco said. "They also sell owl treats, thankfully."

Harry nodded. "Yes, there's nothing for it, I suppose."

Moving down the alley, they made their way to their destination, a bell announcing their arrival as they entered into the shop that was crammed with so many cages and tanks that you couldn't see the walls.

Since the store was known to be rather cramped, Sirius and Remus waited outside, while Narcissa went across the street to reserve them a table at Florean Fortescue's Ice Cream Parlor.

As everyone had agreed that they'd stop for some ice cream, before they headed over to the Carkitt Market section of Diagon Alley to visit the Gringotts Money Exchange, as Harry, who'd forgotten while he was at the bank, wanted to exchange some galleons into muggle pounds but wasn't sharing why, as well as visiting Stowe and Packer's Magical Bags, so that Harry could buy a new trunk.

Thus it was just Harry and Draco entering the shop as they moved over to the area where the various pet supplies were kept. They'd just reached the shelf where the owl treats were on display when they heard it.

"_**I think we shall be stuck here forever, brother."**_

"_**Yes… six months now and not a single person has wanted us."**_

"_**Oh, how I wish we were back in sunny San Diego."**_

"_**Yes, instead of this cold and dreary place."**_

Harry and Draco looked at each other for a moment, before they silently agreed to investigate the source of the voices. Moving through the shop in the direction of the sound, they were both very surprised when they realized that the conversation they'd heard was coming from a large glass terrarium.

Inside of it, coiled up on a large rock under a heat lamp, was a black and white snake, about three to four feet long and about four to six inches around. It had an interesting pattern of markings and coloring that twisted around its body.

Shifting from predominantly black with white accents to predominantly white with black accents and then back again. This switch continued up about two-thirds of the snake's body where it stopped.

It was at the final third where the snake's body split into two separate bodies, each with an identical head affixed to them. The only difference between the two was that one head was almost entirely black with white accents, while the other was the opposite.

What almost like a glittering white diamond was set in the forehead of the black and white head, while a gleaming black diamond was set in the forehead of the white and black one. Each had small ridges along the backs of their heads which resembled horns, a feature which was repeated at the tip of their shared tail.

A sign above the terrarium identified the breed as a Jeweled Runeserpent and noted that it was a breed created from several generations of crossbreeding runespoors with horned serpents by a family of snake breeders in Southern California.

"_**Oh look, brother, more people come to gawk at us."**_

"_**Yes, though these ones are slightly more interesting in that they are similar to us."**_

"_**Yes, two heads, but their features hidden beneath their hoods."**_

"You can understand what they're saying, Draco?"

Draco was quiet for a moment, as he realized the truth. "Yes, I can. It seems our joining has granted me your ability to understand it."

"Can you speak it though?"

Draco hesitated. "I don't know? I mean I never learned, but I can still understand them."

"I never learned it either. At least not the way one learns Latin or English or any other language. Parseltongue is more inherent I guess would be the best word. Something you just understand with no training."

Harry's and Draco's entire conversation was in English, so the twin snakes in the terrarium weren't really paying attention to them, beyond noticing that they were standing there looking at them.

"So I just have to think about saying something in it and it will come out that way?"

Harry nodded. "Yes. When I first discovered my ability in second year it wasn't even conscious. Anytime I looked at a snake I just automatically began speaking in it without even thinking. With practice, I learned how to switch between the two and only speak in it when I want to."

Harry paused here and added, "Although I still have some difficulty recognizing when I hear it spoken around me because it sounds like English to me."

Closing his eyes, Draco concentrated before he hissed, _**"Hello?"**_

His eyes widened, as he added, still in Parseltongue, _**"I did it! Harry, I did it."**_

Harry smiled, as he said, _**"Yes, Draco, you did indeed."**_

This got the attention of the twin snakes who lifted their heads at the same time and looked at Harry and Draco.

"_**They're speakers!"**_ the two heads said in unison.

"_**Do you have names?"**_ Harry asked.

The black head moved back and forth in a negative gesture, as it said, _**"No, speaker, we do not."**_

"_**The family that created our breed never names us,"**_ the white head said. _**"Thinks that the person who buys us should do that."**_

"_**Would you be interested in doing so?"**_ the black head asked. _**"Please, we'd be very happy to be bought by speakers and to leave this store."**_

The white head nodded up and down, its tongue flicking in and out and as it said, _**"Yes, we can barely get any sleep for all the noise."**_

Turning his head towards Draco, Harry asked, in English, "What do you think, Draco? I know we didn't intend to buy anything but owl treats, but I have to admit there is a certain appeal to owning a pet that I can actually speak to."

"Yes, I can see the appeal," Draco said, switching back to English. "It would certainly make us popular in Slytherin… although the Gryffindors probably won't like it."

Harry scoffed. "Well, I guess we can add it to the list of things they won't like but have no choice but to deal with."

"So, should we go talk to the clerk and buy them?" Draco asked.

Harry nodded before he turned back to the twin snakes, who were still looking at them and said, _**"We'll be back. We're going to go talk to the clerk about you."**_

The two heads bobbed up and down, as Harry and Draco made their way back to the front of the store. They each grabbed four boxes of owl treats since it was on their way. Putting them on the counter, the male clerk on duty asked, "Will this be all, gentlemen?"

"Actually, we're interested in purchasing one of your animals as well," Harry said. "And everything necessary for their care."

The clerk nodded. "Very well, which one?"

"The two-headed black and white Jeweled Runeserpent on display along the back wall," Draco answered.

The clerk looked up at this and said, "Nice try, boys, but you sound maybe fourteen? You couldn't possibly afford it."

Harry and Draco looked at each other briefly, before they took deep breaths and since there was nobody else in the store except for them and the clerk—and even the front windows were obscured by cages making it unlikely anyone was going to see them from the street—pulled their hoods down to reveal their heads.

Before the clerk could say a word at the confirmation of his thoughts that they were indeed teenagers, they held out their hands and said, "Care to revise your statement?"

The clerk looked down at their hands and his eyes widened, as he saw the two heir rings upon the fingers of the conjoined twin pair standing on the opposite side of the counter from him.

"Heir Potter, Heir Malfoy, a thousand pardons," the clerk said. "I'd heard you were still alive, but, well, I didn't realize that you'd, um, gotten so close?"

"It's a very recent development," Harry said. "One which you will keep to yourself, I assume?" The clerk nodded his head quickly, as, like most of the clerks and shop-owners on Diagon Alley, they weren't about to risk angering the heirs of two of the oldest and richest noble families in the country. They may as well just close their doors and go out of business if they did.

"Anyway, I assure you that we can afford it. I assume you, like most other shops on Diagon Alley, have a writ of withdrawal that we can sign?"

"Yes, of course, Heir Potter," the clerk said, as he consulted a price list next to the register and began ringing up several items as he did so. Finally, he said, "The owl treats, plus everything needed for the feeding and care of your new pet comes to three galleons, sixty sickles, and eight knuts. That includes a four-month supply of food, two water bowls, two food dishes, a terrarium big enough to hold them, and a pair of charmed heat lamps."

Draco nodded, "And the snake itself?"

"The Jeweled Runespoor, being a rare breed imported all the way from the west coast of America, costs four galleons, fourteen sickles, and eight knuts."

"So 7 galleons, seventy-five sickles, and six knuts in all," Harry said and the clerk nodded. "Very well, make out the writ. Draco and I will split the cost."

Nodding his head, the clerk pulled out a quill, dipped it in ink, and began filling out a sheaf of parchment that he grabbed from a drawer under the cash register. Harry and Draco would both clearly see the Gringotts letterhead and seal.

When the clerk was finished, he handed the quill to Harry who signed it, before handing it to Draco who dipped it in the ink bottle, before signing his own name. As they were signing, the clerk grabbed a stick of red wax which he held the end of against a lit candle, allowing it to drip down onto the parchment to form a small pool next to Harry's signature.

Draco quickly slid Harry's ring off his finger, before giving it to Harry who pressed the seal into the wax. Thankfully, the ring was charmed to automatically clean itself of any residue.

Draco slid the ring back onto Harry's head and they repeated the process with Harry removing Draco's ring and then putting it back on for him.

Casting a quick-drying charm on the wax seals, the clerk nodded and then locked the signed document into a special safe under the counter that would transport it almost immediately to Gringotts where one of the goblins would see to transferring the funds from Harry's and Draco's vaults into the store's vault.

"I'll go collect your purchases," the clerk said, as he moved out from behind the counter and into the back room.

Ten minutes later, Harry and Draco left the store with their purchases bagged and shrunk for transport.

Well, all except the living purchase, for which they'd lifted their shirt and undershirt and allowed to coil around their bare torso. They were both happy to see that the horn-like ridges were magically dulled to not slice into their skin… they'd had enough skin wounds to last a lifetime.

-o-0-o-

To be continued…

So, Harry and Draco have an interesting new pet… I've seen several other stories where Harry buys a snake familiar and I've had a few requests for him to do so in one of my works. Figured I'd finally do it. Next chapter the snakes will be named and the preliminary results of the ritual will be revealed.

Also just as a note, if when reading the Parseltongue in this story, when either spoken by the snakes or by Harry and Draco, or anyone else if you wish to read it with a hissing sibilance, go right ahead. I'm not, however, going to write every word starting with 's' having several of them to simulate it (as I have seen others do), because I don't feel like dealing with both MS Word's spell checker and Grammarly marking up my chapters with tons of what it sees as spelling mistakes.

_**Edited 6 Sep 2020: The costs in this chapter have been amended to use a different valuation for galleons, sickles, and knuts (not JKR's rate of 1 galleon equaling approximately 5 British pounds). Also not using the canon "29 knuts to a sickle and 17 sickles to a galleon" rates, so no the price in the Magical Menagerie (7 galleons, 75 sickles, and 6 knuts) is not a mistake. The specifics will be explained in story in a later chapter.**_


	8. Familiar Bonds

The Battle is Joined

By J.C. Vascardi

-o-0-o-

Chapter Eight:

Familiar Bonds

-o-0-o-

Harry and Draco were just about to leave the drawing room upon returning to Malfoy Manor when Remus asked, "And where are you two off to so quickly?"

Before either of them could comment, he added, "Perhaps to hide what you've got hidden under your shirt?"

Narcissa cocked her head as she asked, "They've got something under their shirt?"

Remus nodded. "Coiled I suspect."

Harry and Draco looked at each other, mouthing "Busted," in near-perfect unison.

Turning to face Remus, Sirius, and Narcissa, Harry said, "Well, we sort of bought more than owl treats at Magical Menagerie."

"Oh?" Narcissa asked. "And what else did you buy?"

"A Jeweled Runeserpent," Draco answered.

"A what?" Sirius asked, having never heard of what they just said.

"A snake if my senses are correct," Remus said.

"You bought a snake?" Lucius asked as he walked into the room, having finished his business and arrived back at the manor a couple of minutes before the others Flooed in. He'd come through the apparition chamber and headed for the drawing room when he heard the Floo activate.

"Yeah," Harry said. "You know I'm a Parselmouth, right?"

"I had heard something to that effect, yes," Lucius answered.

"Well, it seems our joining gave Draco the ability too," Harry said. "We were in the Magical Menagerie to buy owl treats because Eeylops was closed and we heard talking."

Draco nodded, as he said, "We followed the voices and it turned out to be a rare magical snake imported from America."

"A Jeweled Runeserpent," Narcissa said. "Well, let's see this elusive creature."

Harry and Draco sighed, as they lifted up their shirt and undershirt to reveal the snake coiled around their torso.

"_**Draco's parents, my godfather, and my late father's best friend would like to meet you guys,"**_ Harry hissed in Parseltongue to the snakes who were currently dozing, enjoying Harry's and Draco's body heat.

The two-headed snake woke at this, uncoiled, and moved from their torso over to Harry's crutch, which they coiled around as they moved up so that they could look around the room and the other people in it.

"_**You and Draco don't share parents?"**_ The white-and-black head asked as it turned to look at Harry.

Shaking his head, Harry said, _**"No, we don't. We weren't born connected to each other. Our shared body is the result of a magical accident."**_

The two snakes bobbed their heads as if nodding, as Lucius and Narcissa approached first. Draco hissed, _**"These are my parents, Lucius and Narcissa Malfoy."**_

In English, Draco added, "Mother, Father, these are, well, Harry and I haven't named them yet."

"They're certainly an interesting looking specimen," Lucius said. "I don't think I've ever seen anything quite like them in my life."

"Neither have I," Narcissa said. "I've seen pictures of a runespoor, but they usually have three heads, at least until two of them get tired of the third criticizing them and bite it off."

Sirius nodded as he approached and took a closer look. "And since I don't see the stump that would be left behind by the severed head, I'm guessing that didn't happen here."

Harry, who was hissing the conversation to the two snakes to translate for them, said, "They say they're pleased to meet you. And that you're right, Sirius, they didn't bite off the third head, because they've never had one."

"Their breed is the result of generations of crossbreeding between horned serpents and runespoors," Draco said.

Remus's eyes widened. "Well, the fact that you both speak Parseltongue helps, but you should definitely consider formalizing a familiar bond with them as soon as possible. Assuming you want to take them with you to Hogwarts, because I'm not sure what rating the Ministry would give them, but their parent species are considered highly dangerous."

Summoning a copy of Fantastic Beasts, Narcissa looked through it and said, "Indeed. Horned Serpents are classified at 5X by the Ministry or known wizard killers, impossible to train or domesticate." Turning a few pages, she added, "While Runespoors are rated 4X, making them dangerous and requiring specialist knowledge or a skilled wizard to handle."

"I think being able to speak to them in their own language counts as specialist knowledge," Harry said and Draco nodded, even as he relayed the conversation to the snakes. Listening to their response, Harry added, "They say they don't necessarily agree with the Ministry's classifications, but they agree that a familiar bond is a good idea and are eager to undergo it."

"They'd also like us to name them," Draco said with a grin, as he turned his head to look at Harry and said, "So, yeah, we should get on that."

"Well, we'll leave you to it," Narcissa said, as the other adults nodded.

A part of them were worried about the dangerous rating that they had, but then the snakes didn't seem to be overly aggressive, as they'd just been rather calmly resting on Harry's forearm atop his crutch for the last several minutes.

Harry and Draco being able to speak to them was also a big plus, and they rather assumed that for Magical Menagerie to sell them, the owner had to be fairly certain that they could be domesticated. As they wouldn't have been allowed to have them for sale in the shop otherwise.

-o-0-o-

Twenty minutes later, Harry and Draco were in their temporary bedroom, laying on the bed, with their new snakes lying coiled on a pillow next to their heads.

Hedwig and Adonis were perched on an ornate silver and black stand near the window. The latter of whom had accepted Harry's presence in his owner's life with pretty much the same ease that Hedwig had accepted Draco. Albeit with the warning that he'd hurt Harry if he hurt Draco… only Adonis, being male and thus a bit more aggressive, didn't threaten Harry's eyes but rather his bits.

Which considering how close his own were to Harry's, Draco would be lying if that didn't make him just a little uncomfortable.

"So, names," Harry said. "I suppose from their coloring, the most obvious would be Ebony and Ivory but those would be stupid names for something as majestic as our new friends."

"I quite agree, Harry," Draco said, before translating for the snakes, who agreed with not liking those names.

After a moment of thought, Harry hissed, _**"What about Erebus and Helios?"**_

"_**Hmm, those could work,"**_ Draco hissed. _**"Erebus is the Greek God of Darkness, while Helios is the Greek God of the Sun."**_

Harry nodded. _**"Yes, some myths that I've seen use Helios and Apollo interchangeably as the God of Light, though that is technically Apollo's domain."**_

"_**Erebus,"**_ the black-and-white head hissed, trying it out. _**"I like it."**_

"_**Helios,"**_ the white-and-black head hissed. _**"Yes, that name is acceptable. Far better than Ivory."**_

If a snake could cringe, then that's exactly what the white-and-black head appeared to be doing.

Nodding his head up and down, the black-and-white head, now dubbed Erebus, said, "Yes if you dared to call us Ebony and Ivory, we'd be escaping post-haste no matter how much money you paid for us."

"_**Well, then Erebus and Helios it is then,"**_ Draco said, as the two snakes and Harry nodded in agreement.

"_**So what exactly is involved in a familiar bond?"**_ Harry asked. _**"I've heard it mentioned, but I admit I've never read much on the subject because Hedwig isn't a familiar."**_

While some people did forge familiar bonds with cats, they had to be at least partially magical for it to work. Hermione could, if she so chose, make Crookshanks her familiar since he was half-Kneazle. If he was just a regular muggle cat, however, it wouldn't work.

The same held true for owls and toads, most of whom were, despite magical training in the case of owls, still, just regular muggle creatures that couldn't form a familiar bond, as the creature had to actually have magic itself for a bond to properly form.

"_**It's a blood magic ritual,"**_ Draco explained. _**"Requires both wizard and creature to willingly exchange magic and blood. This is why familiar bonds don't work for mundane creatures because they usually don't have the necessary intelligence, let alone the required magic, to consent to the ritual."**_

Looking over at where Hedwig and Adonis were perched, Harry said, _**"It's probably a good thing we're having this conversation in Parseltongue, as I have a feeling that Hedwig and Adonis would not be particularly happy with the suggestion that they're not intelligent."**_

"_**True. I haven't known Hedwig long, but I can say that Adonis would definitely get his feathers ruffled by that statement. Of course, post owls receive magical training to do their jobs, as well as having a series of spells cast on them to grant them the intelligence they have… which isn't at a sufficient level to satisfy the ritual, as it only counts natural intelligence, not magically granted or enhanced intelligence."**_

"_**Well, that isn't a problem for us," **_Erebus hissed, as Helios nodded. _**"Our intelligence is very much natural."**_

"_**So, if we forge a familiar bond with Erebus and Helios, will they both be our familiars? Or will one be mine and the other be yours, Draco?"**_

"_**I'm actually not sure," **_Draco said. _**"The books I've read on the subject didn't mention anything about bonding with two-headed creatures."**_

"_**Our breeders taught us about them," **_Helios said. _**"As you probably assumed, to be successful breeders specializing in crossbreeding between magical snakes, they are Speakers."**_

Harry and Draco nodded, as it certainly did make sense, especially considering just how dangerous the two breeds were according to the Ministry's classifications. Erebus and Helios had commented they didn't agree with their parent species' classifications, but then again, it was highly unlikely that anyone at the Ministry talked to members of those species and got their opinions.

Erebus nodded. _**"Each of us can bond with a wizard or witch, but not the same one. So, Helios would be bonded to one of you and I to the other."**_

"_**Our older siblings, before our export, that successfully bonded did so with Speakers," **_Helios added. _**"One pair with a pair of female conjoined twins and the other with a brother and sister, who were obviously not conjoined."**_

"_**Ours is a proud breed who will not bond with anyone we can't communicate with," **_Erebus revealed. _**"So being Speakers is non-negotiable. While we'd prefer the similarity to us of conjoined twins, it's not a requirement. Helios and I are happy, however, that you two are conjoined, as it allows for more understanding between us."**_

"_**We actually weren't up until that long ago," **_Harry said. _**"You know what apparition is?" **_The two snakes nodded. _**"Well, we were in an accident which caused us to leave large portions of our bodies behind, including internal organs we couldn't live without."**_

"_**Our magic reacted to save our lives," **_Draco said. _**"And our conjoined status is the result. It's why we use crutches to walk. We each only control one arm and one leg and being that it's still less than two weeks since our joining, we're still learning how to cooperate."**_

"_**Ah, we had wondered about the crutches as you call them," **_Erebus said. _**"All the more reason for the familiar bond then, as we can help with your cooperation issues."**_

"_**You can?" **_Harry asked.

Helios nodded. _**"Yes. You see we are naturally telepathic with each other, so we can communicate thoughts and memories between us without words. By bonding with us, you will gain the same, not only with us but with each other as well."**_

"_**That could be useful," **_Draco said, after taking a moment to consider it. _**"Especially with learning, as we each took a few elective classes last year that the other didn't take, so we're each behind a year in those electives that we now have to take together."**_

"_**Yes, I suppose it could speed up the process for things that require two hands," **_Harry agreed. _**"Such as the piano and violin. I don't even know how to read music, but I assume you do, Draco."**_

"_**Yes, Harry, I do," **_Draco drawled. _**"Funnily enough, it's sort of a requirement to play an instrument. Well, I suppose some might be able to do it only by hearing and memory, but I'm not one of them. When I'm learning a new piece or playing something that I haven't memorized, I do actually need the sheet music in front of me."**_

The boys continued talking with their new friends for a few minutes about the potential benefits of the familiar bond before they all finally drifted off to sleep.

-o-0-o-

To be continued…


	9. The Silver Lining

The Battle is Joined

By J.C. Vascardi

-o-0-o-

Chapter Nine:

The Silver Lining

-o-0-o-

Harry woke up the next morning to find Draco still asleep and a throbbing erection. Well, two, actually. Deciding to have some fun, Harry reached under the covers and grasped his erection. Even though it was technically part of him now, he kept his hand off of Draco's erection or at least as much as he could. His knuckles may have brushed against it as he took his own in hand.

He hadn't run his hand up and down his length more than two or three times before Draco woke up and realized what Harry was doing.

"At least have the courtesy to push the sheets down, Harry," he said, before pushing them down and freeing their cocks from under them. Reaching over and grabbing his wand, he added, "And spell the curtains shut and put up a Silencing Charm."

"Right, I forgot."

"Why do I get the feeling it's not the first time?"

"Because it's not."

Draco groaned. "I pity your dorm mates."

"Don't. You think I'm the only one who forgets?" Harry asked. "I've woken up more than once to one of them jerking off. Or in the case of Seamus and Dean, fucking each other."

"Finnigan and Thomas are a couple?"

Nodding, Harry said, "Yup. They finally got together about midway through last year, after spending practically all of second year mooning over each other completely oblivious to the fact that they liked each other as more than best mates."

"Ah, well, I'd have something to say about oblivious Gryffindors but Blaise and Theo were the same way. Although they, at least, don't forget the charms."

Rolling his eyes, Harry said, "Draco, I've got an idea."

"Don't strain yourself."

"Very funny. Since you've spelled the curtains and put up charms, why don't you take yourself in hand and join me? Since we can feel everything else, I'm actually kind of curious what it would feel like if we came at the same time."

Normally Draco might have accused Harry of being uncouth, but he kept his mouth shut because he was curious himself. So, instead, he wrapped his hand around his own throbbing member. It took a moment, but after a while, both boys managed to get their movements in sync so that their knuckles weren't brushing against one another.

"So, Drake, thinking about anyone in particular?"

"Not you."

"Good, cause given our new circumstances that would be more than a little weird."

Draco nodded, before he said, "There's a few people I've got a crush on."

"Care to share?"

"Depends."

"On?"

"You going to return the favor?"

"I don't see why not." Harry paused and then added, "I assume Blaise and Theo are on your list since you said you lost your virginity to them."

"Yes, well, their beds are on either side of mine, so I've joined them a few times when they decided to do the deed. It's always been clear though that they're a couple and I'm just a friend joining in."

Harry nodded. "Fair enough. I've always wondered what it might be like to join Seamus and Dean in bed. Since they often forget the charms, I can hear them when they go at it. Despite being a Gryffindor, however, I've never managed to work up the courage to ask if I could join them."

Draco grinned. "It's probably your virgin nerves. So, anyone else outside of your dorm?"

"Oliver Wood and the Weasley twins. Having seen all three of them naked in the Quidditch showers, I've gotta say it's almost a shame that they ever wear clothes."

Draco laughed. "Yeah, I feel the same about Terence Higgs, Adrian Pucey, and Cassius Warrington. It's bordering on criminal that they cover themselves up."

"Bill and Charlie Weasley aren't hard on the eyes either," Harry added, after a moment. "Honestly, Percy isn't bad either. I saw him without a shirt a few times last year and he's actually quite ripped. Take of those nerdy glasses and well, let's just say that if I had the chance to sleep with him, I wouldn't say no."

"I'll take your word for it," Draco said. "So, all of Weasel's brothers are good looking?" Harry nodded. "What the hell happened to Weasel?"

Until recently, Harry would have had a problem with Draco calling his best friend Weasel. But, considering that he was currently in a French prison for almost killing him and Draco, he wasn't feeling very charitable towards him.

"I honestly have no idea. Sharing a dorm with him though, I can tell you that he's definitely in the shallow end of the gene pool."

"Not surprised," Draco said. After a moment, he added, "I'm having a hard time picturing serious and straight-laced Percy Weasley ever loosening up enough to take off his shirt in front of anyone."

"Yeah, I was rather surprised myself," Harry agreed. "But he joined me on my morning runs a few times last year. On a couple of the hotter days in mid-June, he took off his shirt and hung it from his back pocket."

Speeding up his hand ever so slightly as he thought back on it, Harry added, "I swear I was so distracted that I almost ran right into the lake the first time he did it."

"If he's that good looking I'm sorry I'll never get the chance to see him for myself. Since he's graduated."

"You might get a chance. I am very close to his family, after all. I wasn't lying when I said I thought of Ginny as a sister. Of course, I try not to think of her brothers as my brothers, cause that'd be weird since I'm lusting after most of them. Anyway, let's just say that Penelope is a very lucky girl."

"Penelope?"

"Clearwater. She's in Ravenclaw. Was Head Girl last year, alongside Percy."

"Ah," Draco said. And since he didn't want to think about girls while he was jerking off, he said, "Well, speaking of Ravenclaw, I do have a crush on one of their chasers: Roger Davies."

Harry was silent for a moment as he tried to call up an image of Roger in his mind. After a moment, he said, "Huh, yeah I can see why you would. He's like sex on legs."

"I know, right? And the best part is, I know for a fact that he's actually gay."

"Really? How do you know that?"

"He's Terence's ex-boyfriend. They broke up towards the end of last year because Terence fell in love with one of Roger's dorm mates, Nathaniel Douglas."

"Ouch," Harry said. "That sucks, to lose your boyfriend to your roommate."

"Yeah," Draco agreed. "If I was a couple of years older, I'd probably ask him out."

"Why not do it anyway?"

"Harry, I'm fourteen. He's sixteen."

"So? Come on Draco, it's only two years. It's not like he's old enough to be your father."

"Well, I suppose. Of course, there's every possibility that even if I did have a chance with him before, that I won't now. Because of our connection."

"Perhaps," Harry allowed. "Then again, there's also a chance that he might jump at the chance to be with you… well, I suppose I should say us. Some people are actually attracted to conjoined twins, you know."

"Terence isn't conjoined. Doesn't even have a twin. He does have two sets of twin siblings, but he isn't a twin himself."

"That doesn't mean anything, Drake. Just because Roger and Terence were together doesn't mean that he couldn't be attracted to them. Of course, I'm not saying that he is. Just saying that he could be."

Draco was quiet for a moment, before he asked, "So what about you? Anyone outside of Gryffindor that you've got a crush on?"

"Well, Hufflepuff's seeker, Cedric Diggory, is also sex on legs."

Draco smiled and moaned as he thought about the Hufflepuff. "True, they definitely don't call him the Hufflepuff Hottie for nothing."

"It's probably just wishful thinking but I could have sworn he was flirting with me at the World Cup."

"What did he do?"

"He and his family took the same portkey to the cup grounds that I took with the Weasleys. It was the very first time I had ever used a portkey before so I ended up on my arse. He helped me up and held my hand for far longer than was necessary. I mean I was already on my feet, there's no real reason for him to still be holding my hand five minutes later. He didn't let go until we reached the check-in desk and his father called him forward."

"You have a point," Draco said. "Anyway, I tell you what. As soon as school starts, I'll ask Roger out if you ask Cedric out."

"Deal," Harry said before they both fell silent. Thoughts of Roger and Cedric on their minds as they continued their ministrations.

Several minutes later, as they came, it was the names of a certain Ravenclaw and a certain Hufflepuff that they called out.

Taking several deep breaths, Draco finally said, "Well, I guess there's a silver lining to our connection."

"Yeah," Harry said, a bit breathlessly. "I could feel your orgasm, just as I assume you could feel mine." When Draco nodded, he added, "That's definitely one thing I'm not going to complain about. You?"

"Oh hell no. It felt too good to complain about."

-o-0-o-

To be continued…

And there's Ch9 of "The Battle is Joined." I know, it was a pretty short chapter, but it's better than nothing. I hope you enjoyed it and that you're all staying safe.


	10. Preliminary Results

The Battle is Joined

By J.C. Vascardi

-o-0-o-

Chapter Ten:

Preliminary Results

-o-0-o-

After finishing up their morning activities, Harry and Draco got out of bed and used their crutches to get into the ensuite. After emptying their bladder they took a quick shower and then got dressed. Leaving the bathroom, they went over to the desk and sat down.

Picking up a quill and dipping it in the inkwell, Harry began writing.

_Hermione,_

_I'm practically blushing as I write this and if I had any male muggleborn friends who knew about my new circumstances, I'd be writing them instead. Dean comes to mind, but he doesn't know about Draco yet and it would take too long to explain it._

_Anyway, the reason I'm blushing is the reason for this letter. I'm including some pounds I had converted on a shopping trip to Diagon Alley and I'd really appreciate it if you could go to the store and buy Draco and I some… ahem… underwear._

_Draco has never worn muggle underwear before, having only worn traditional wizarding underwear—research underwear from the 1800s or early 1900s and you'll know what they look like—but has agreed to try them._

_We'd go and buy them ourselves, but you know as well as I do that we'd be getting starred at in any muggle store we entered. Not only because of the conjoined thing but also because we're not identical. Included below are my preferred style, color preferences (both mine and Draco's), and the necessary size._

_If you're not comfortable with doing this for us, that's fine, I understand. Just so say and return the money._

_Your Friend,_

_Harry_

Taking the quill from Harry, Draco turned the parchment slightly and added a postscript.

P.S. I apologize for the times I've called you that word for muggleborns that I won't mention. I'm not just saying that because I want your help, either. Since our joining, Harry has made me think about a few things and I've realized that I was in the wrong.

There are still many aspects of pureblood life that I won't reject as it's part of my culture and religion, but I promise not to call you that word anymore, Granger. I hope you don't mind my use of your surname until I get to know you better.

Best Regards,

Draco

Putting the quill back in its stand, Harry pulled out his wand and cast a Drying Charm on the parchment to dry the wet ink, before folding the letter in thirds. Working together Harry and Draco applied sealing wax before Harry flipped it over and addressed the letter to Hermione.

Standing up, the pair walked over to the owl perch. Adonis was fast asleep, although Hedwig was awake, which Harry wasn't too surprised about because despite owls usually being nocturnal, snowy owls actually did most of their hunting during the day.

"Feel up to making a quick delivery for me before you go hunting, girl?" Harry asked.

Hedwig nodded her head and let out a soft hoot, careful not to wake Adonis as he was a bit testy if woken before his desired time. Harry tied the letter to Hedwig's leg before she gave Harry an affectionate nip. Spreading her wings, she flew out the nearby window, which while closed, was charmed to allow both Hedwig and Adonis through.

"Just to be clear," Draco said. "We did just send a note to Granger of all people asking her to buy us underwear, right?"

"Yes."

"Oh sweet Merlin's hairy balls," Draco muttered softly enough that last month would not have been able to hear. Of course, that was then, and now, well, he was sure he'd get used to this eventually. Right?

-o-0-o-

Sitting down at the table in the small breakfast nook off the kitchen at Malfoy Manor—apparently, the Malfoys only ate dinner in the large, fancy dining room where the table was so long that you almost certainly would have to use a Sonorous Charm to talk to someone on the opposite end—Harry noted the presence of two place settings in front of him and Draco.

Draco was in the process of reaching over to the toast rack to grab some toast when Harry grabbed his arm and stopped him.

"Harry, let go, I'm hungry."

"We share a stomach, Draco. Do you honestly think you need to tell me that?"

With a sigh, the blond said, "No, I suppose not, but why'd you grab my arm?"

"I'm thinking that maybe we should start eating from the same plate," Harry said. "I mean, whether it goes in my mouth or yours, it's still going to the same place. One plate instead of two would probably help with portion control and lessen the chances of us eating too much and ending up with a stomachache."

Draco considered that for a moment. "Well, I suppose maybe you're right. It would also probably make things easier for anything that needs to be cut or buttered or anything else that one generally uses two hands for."

Harry nodded, as Draco turned to the head kitchen elf, Dippy, and said, "In future, set only one place setting for Harry and me."

"Two glasses though," Harry added. "We still have separate throats, after all, so one of us drinking isn't going to slake thirst the same way that one of us eating would do for hunger."

"Good point," Draco agreed, even as Dippy removed the plate and cutlery from in front of Harry, before centering the one that had been in front of Draco.

With that taken care of, Harry let go of Draco's wrist and let him grab toast, as he reached over and grabbed the spoon in the dish of scrambled eggs.

"You know in my wildest and weirdest dreams, I can honestly say that I never thought I'd be eating off the same plate as you," Draco said a few minutes later.

"Bet you also never thought you'd be holding a slice of toast while I spread butter and preserves on it for you."

"Yeah, I can't say that I did."

"Join the club," Harry said with a sigh, as he finished spreading strawberry preserves on the slice of toast, which he then cut in half, a second before Draco ate one half and Harry the other.

-o-0-o-

Meanwhile, at the Ministry, having just come from the office of the Head of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement Amelia Bones, Lord Arcturus Black walked into the Minister's outer office.

He was normally confined to a wheelchair, but he was determined not to be seen as the weak old man that he was. So, while he knew that he'd probably regret it later, he'd had his healer give him a few potions which would give him the strength he needed temporarily. If he was leaning a bit heavily on his cane then so be it. At least he was walking, instead of rolling, around the Ministry.

Entering the office and striding towards the doors to the Minister's inner office, bypassing the three or four other people waiting to see him, the Minister's private secretary jumped up and said, "Stop! You can't go in there!"

Rounding on the boy who didn't look a day over twenty-five, Arcturus gave him a cold, withering look and asked, "Do you have any clue in that empty little head of yours who you're speaking to?"

The young man looked taken aback and indignant at that comment. "It really doesn't matter, sir. You can't just walk into the Minister's office. Do you even have an appointment? What's your name?"

"That's Your Lordship to you, you incompetent imbecile," Arcturus said. And holding up the hand on which he wore the Black family lordship ring, he added, "I'm the Lord Arcturus Black, Marquess of Charlton, and Head of the Most Ancient and Noble House of Black. A position I've held since before you were in nappies, so don't stand there and have the audacity to tell me what I can and cannot do."

"I apologize, my lord, but…"

"No buts," Arcturus said. "I'm invoking Council Law 23."

"Council Law 23?" the secretary asked, a look of complete confusion on his face.

Arcturus shook his head. "As in the High Council of Albion and Hibernia." The boy still looked confused. "Where in Merlin's name were you born boy?"

"New York City."

"Ah, so, let me get this straight," Arcturus said. "Minister Fudge hired you, a boy born in America, who clearly has no knowledge of the laws of the country in which he now lives to be his private secretary. Am I getting that about right?"

"I know the Ministry's laws," the boy said, a bit indignantly.

Arcturus laughed. "If that was true, boy, you'd know what the High Council was. But since you apparently are woefully ignorant, let me enlighten you. The High Council of Albion and Hibernia is made up of the noble families of the same and it is on their authority that the Ministry for Magic was created in the first place. They're above the Ministry in all things and have the power to abolish it if they so choose."

The boy looked like he was ready to argue, but that's when he noticed the other people in the room who'd been waiting to see the Minister nodding in agreement with Lord Black.

"I take it you're a member of this High Council?" the boy asked.

Arcturus laughed. "Give the lad a point for showing some intelligence. Yes, boy, as the Lord Black, I am one of the twenty-three noble lords that make up the Council. And before you ask, Council Law 23 states that all members of the High Council upon invoking said law have the right to see the Minister immediately and without delay to discuss matters of urgent family business."

Before the boy could say a word, Arcturus added, "Continue to stand in my way, boy, and you will be in breach of Council Law, which carries a minimum sentence of one year in Azkaban Prison. So, are you going to announce me now? Or do I need to send for Madam Bones to sign your arrest warrant?"

The boy gulped before he stepped forward and knocked on the Minister's door. A second later a barely audible yell came from inside, prompting the boy to open the door just enough to stick his head in. Or at least, that had been his intention, until Arcturus lifted his cane off the floor and pushed the end of it against the boy's arse, sending him falling arse over tip into the Minister's office.

Cornelius was on his feet and rounding his desk to check on his secretary who he'd never known to be so clumsy before when Arcturus entered the room.

"Lord Black, Your Lordship," Cornelius said, stopping short and bowing. "What an unexpected surprise… I mean, pleasure."

"I'm sure it is, Cornelius," Arcturus said. "Well? Are you going to offer me a seat or are you just going to stand there gaping like a fish out of water?"

Shaking his head, Cornelius said, "Of course, Your Lordship," before gesturing to one of the chairs in front of his desk. "Please, have a seat."

Walking towards the Minister's desk, Arcturus did take a seat, only it wasn't the seat that the Minister had been gesturing to… no, he took the Minister's seat behind his desk.

"Tell your boy to bring tea and then leave us," Arcturus ordered, as he leaned his cane against the desk and steepled his fingers in front of his face. "We are not to be disturbed for any reason. We've got urgent family business to discuss."

-o-0-o-

After finishing breakfast—Lucius and Narcissa joining them for tea and toast about halfway through their meal—the four of them left for Gringotts. Almost the moment they stepped out of the Floo into the VIP Lobby, they were shown to a conference room, the Potter and Malfoy family account managers and Sirius were already waiting for them.

Seeing Sirius, Lucius said, "You'll be interested to know that Lord Black plans to go to the Ministry today and raise hell about your prison stint and lack of conviction."

"Grandfather? I didn't even know he knew," Sirius said.

"I informed him after I learned of it," Lucius said. "He's the head of my wife's family, after all, and the very idea that his heir, without whom the family will fall into extinction in its male line, was imprisoned for over a decade for something they didn't do and without a trial is anathema to me and every other member of the High Council."

Sirius nodded but knowing that they were at Gringotts at the moment and the goblins were no doubt waiting to present Harry and Draco with their preliminary test results, he knew now was not the appropriate time.

"Well, let's get down to business, shall we?" Lucius asked.

"Yes, Lord Malfoy, let's," Gragnast said, as he pulled out a rather wicked looking dagger made of goblin-forged silver with a large diamond set in the hilt and sliced open the wax seal on a piece of parchment.

"Heir Draco Malfoy, your results are as follows," Gragnast said, as he looked over the parchment for a moment. "You're the pureblood son of Lucius Malfoy and Narcissa Malfoy née Black, grandson of Abraxas Malfoy, Malinda Malfoy née Goyle, Cygnus Black, and Druella Black née Rosier, and the great-grandson of Hyperion Malfoy, Lucinda Malfoy née Selwyn, Thomas Goyle, Dorothea Goyle née Nott, Pollux Black, Irma Black née Crabbe, William Rosier, and Margaret Rosier née Fulton."

"Well, I'm still a pureblood then," Draco said. "Not sure how that works with Harry being a halfblood, though."

Lucius and Narcissa looked relieved, and Sirius and Harry both agreed they weren't sure how that worked. Scarclaw remained expressionless, not really caring one way or the other since blood purity wasn't seen as all that important among goblins since it didn't usually affect one's ability to make money.

Even though muggleborns might have fewer opportunities for advancement in certain careers in the magical world, they could still get extremely well-paid jobs in the muggle world and potentially become richer than some purebloods.

"As for inborn magical abilities," Gragnast continued, "Heir Malfoy is a natural Occlumens and through his joining with Heir Potter has gained the ability to speak, read, and write Parseltongue. Heir Malfoy, you also carry a dormant Metamorphmagus ability."

"I'm not surprised," Narcissa said. "The Metamorphmagus ability is a well-known Black family trait, although it can sometimes skip several generations between active metamorphmagi."

Continuing with Draco's results, Gragnast said, "You're a prodigy in Ancient Runes, Heir Malfoy, an Arithmancy genius, and gifted with the Dark Arts and Music, specifically of the instrumental variety."

"Prodigy?" Harry asked.

"It's a competency scale," Lucius explained. "Prodigy is the highest level and means that the person will not only understand the subject that they're a prodigy in as easily as one might learn the answer to one plus one but will very likely also make great contributions to the subject, in the form of discoveries or theories, new spells, etc."

"Below prodigy is genius," Narcissa said. "And below that is gifted, which is a level above the above-average level. Like for prodigy, they all mean that a person will find those particular subjects easier."

Harry nodded, before Gragnast said, "That's the end of Heir Malfoy's preliminary results, other than the fact that his full results will be ready on 30 September 1995."

"So a little over half a month more than a year since they did the ritual," Sirius said, as the others nodded.

"The 30th is a Saturday," Gragnast said. "The last Saturday of September has been a Hogsmeade weekend for the last fifteen years, so I see no reason why it would be different next year. Harry and Draco will just have to visit the Hogsmeade branch of Gringotts that day and Scarclaw and I will be able to bring their results to them there."

-o-0-o-

"What business did you wish to discuss Lord Black?" Cornelius asked as he sat down in one of the chairs in front of his desk that was usually used by the people who came to see him.

He wasn't exactly thrilled about the chair behind his desk being appropriated, but he knew better than to say anything about it.

"You must immediately rescind the kiss on sight order you placed upon my grandson, Sirius Black."

"You want me to what?" Cornelius asked, sure that he had misheard the Lord Black.

"Pretending you didn't hear me will not change what I said."

"Sir, with all due respect, I cannot do that. Sirius Black is a wanted criminal and Azkaban escapee. He murdered over a dozen people and betrayed James and Lily Potter. He cannot be allowed to go free."

Arcturus raised an eyebrow and said, "I did not stutter, Cornelius. In fact, I spoke very clearly. So I fail to understand why you're under the impression that I was making a request that you had the right to refuse."

When Cornelius didn't immediately respond, Arcturus said, "To make it very clear, Minister, when I told you to rescind the kiss on sight order that wasn't a request. It was an order that I expect you to obey immediately."

"I am the Minister for Magic!" Cornelius exclaimed. "You can't…"

"Cornelius, I strongly suggest that you close your mouth now," Arcturus said. "Before you lodge your foot so far into it that even the most advanced surgical spells known to wizardkind won't be able to remove it."

"I am the Minister and this is my office," Cornelius said. "I am in charge here and I will not rescind the order. Sirius Black is guilty and must be punished."

"He is not guilty, Minister, and I will prove that," Arcturus said. "And I will give you one last chance to do the right thing and heed my order." Holding up his hand when it looked like Cornelius was about to say something, he added, "Know that I've already spoken to Madam Bones and she is opening an official investigation into the wrongful arrest and imprisonment of my grandson."

"Wrongful imprisonment?" Cornelius asked, incredulous. "He's a convicted murderer?"

"Really?" Arcturus said. "And how exactly do you become a convicted murderer when you were sent to prison without a trial? My grandson spent thirteen years in Azkaban for crimes that he not only did not commit but was never tried for or convicted of."

In the silence that followed that statement, Arcturus said, "Madam Bones will be presenting the results of her investigation to the High Council in one week. I assure you that when the results prove that Sirius is, in fact, innocent that the Council will not be amused. And if you refuse to obey my orders, I can assure you that I will move for a vote of no confidence in your leadership of the Ministry."

Cornelius gulped and visibly paled, as Arcturus added, "In fact, Minister, given that Sirius will be the last living male member of the Most Ancient and Noble House of Black upon my death, I wouldn't be surprised if the Council decides that the Ministry has overstepped their bounds and votes to abolish it altogether."

"They can't…"

Arcturus picked up his cane and rapped the head of it loudly against the desk, as he said, "There's that word again, Cornelius. Can't. It was the High Council that created the Ministry, Cornelius, and gave it all of its power and authority. They can just as easily take what was given away if pushed too far. So I urge you to remove that word from your vocabulary, Cornelius, and do as I tell you or face the wrath of the High Council."

Cornelius sighed deeply before he nodded and said, "Fine. The order is rescinded pending the report of Madam Bones and the decision of the Council."

Arcturus smiled. "You see? Was that really so hard?"

-o-0-o-

Back at Gringotts, Scarclaw removed his own goblin-forged dagger and slit the seal on Harry's results. Upon opening them, the first thing he saw was a note from the goblin ritualist who performed the ritual for Harry and Draco.

"Hmm, well, that's different," Scarclaw said, as he took a moment to read the note. After a moment, he looked up and said, "It would seem that two active spell effects were detected during the ritual which directly affects your results, Heir Potter. Also, because of the spell effects in question, most of you will be unable to hear or see a portion of Heir Potter's real preliminary results until the spell effects are removed."

"Most of us?" Harry asked.

Scarclaw nodded. "Goblin magic can temporarily pierce the effects so that I will be able to share the true results with you, Heir Potter. And Heir Malfoy will be able to hear them, as well, due to your shared body. Everyone else in the room, however, will hear or see the altered results until the spell effects I mentioned are removed."

Scarclaw tilted his head to one side, as he added, "This piercing is only temporary, however, and if those effects are not removed, then within one day, both Heirs Potter and Malfoy, and myself, will forget the true results. The temporary piercing won't be able to be reactivated without doing the ritual a second time, which would then require waiting until the current ritual's full results are available over a year from now."

"What are these active spell effects?" Sirius asked. "Will we be able to hear that much?"

Scarclaw nodded. "Yes, Mr. Black. I can reveal the effects themselves, but in the case of one of them, you will not be able to hear the result of those effects."

"So, what are they?" Harry asked.

"The Primogenitus Curse and the Fidelius Charm," Scarclaw said. Seeing that Harry looked ready to say something, Scarclaw added, "And no, Heir Potter, the Fidelius in question is not the one cast by Albus Dumbledore to protect you and your parents thirteen years ago."

Harry nodded. "Okay, I know what the Fidelius is. What's the Primogenitus Curse?"

"It's a Dark Arts curse," Draco said. "It suppresses the magic of the person it's cast on and that of their firstborn child. Any firstborn children of the firstborn child born after the curse was cast will all be squibs, even after the curse is removed."

"Do you know who cast these spells?" Lucius asked.

Scarclaw nodded. "Gellert Grindelwald." After a moment's pause, he added, "Some of the information I'm about to reveal is under the auspices of the Fidelius," as he turned to look at Harry and Draco, as he added, "The spells were cast upon Heir Potter's maternal great-grandfather, Charles Evans, and thus affected his firstborn and only child, William Evans, his firstborn, Petunia Evans Dursley, and her firstborn, Dudley Dursley."

"Well, I can confirm that the Fidelius is indeed in effect," Narcissa said. "The last thing I heard you say, Scarclaw, was 'under the auspices of the Fidelius.' After that, while I could see your lips moving, I couldn't hear anything you said."

"Same," Gragnast said, as Lucius and Sirius nodded.

"Why would Grindelwald cast this Primogenitus Curse on my mother's family?" Harry asked. "She's a muggleborn."

"Except that she isn't," Scarclaw said. "The Fidelius that Grindelwald cast hides this information from everyone that he, as the Secret Keeper, doesn't tell personally. In this instance, even if people knew the truth before his Fidelius was cast, their memory of it would be suppressed until such time the spell is lifted or Grindelwald tells them."

"And what's the truth?" Draco asked.

"The Evans family is a pureblood wizarding family," Scarclaw answered.

Harry's eyes widened. "You mean?"

Scarclaw nodded, "Yes, Heir Potter, you are not a halfblood. You're actually the pureblood scion of Houses Potter and Evans."

-o-0-o-

To be continued…

And there you have Ch10 of 'The Battle is Joined'. I know, what a place to end it, huh? Next chapter the rest of Harry's results will be read and trust me when I say, everyone is in for quite a shock.


	11. Nurmengard

The Battle is Joined

By J.C. Vascardi

-o-0-o-

Chapter Eleven:

Nurmengard

-o-0-o-

"But why would Grindelwald cast these spells on my mother's family in the first place?" Harry asked.

Scarclaw shrugged. "You'd have to ask him that."

"Ask him?" Harry asked. "But isn't he dead? Dumbledore defeated him back in the 1940s."

"1945 to be precise," Narcissa said. "And no, Gellert Grindelwald is not dead. Albus Dumbledore did defeat him in a duel, but he did not kill him. Instead, he was imprisoned in the topmost tower cell of Nurmengard… a fortress in the Austrian Alps that Grindelwald himself built to hold his own enemies."

"To the best of my knowledge," Lucius added, "he's still alive. If he were dead, that's the kind of thing that would be sure to make the papers."

"Could he lift the spells?"

"Probably," Draco said. "But, he'd have to be given a wand and we'd have to actually go to Nurmengard."

"Dumbledore would probably be your best bet if you want to pursue this matter," Scarclaw said. "We can summon him here, if you wish, but know that unless Grindelwald told him, he will not be able to hear or see the truth. So convincing him might be difficult."

"Fawkes might be able to detect that Harry and Draco are telling the truth," Sirius said. "Phoenixes are very potent magical creatures and since Fawkes is Dumbledore's familiar, the bond between them should make him receptive to Fawkes' insight."

Scarclaw nodded, as Harry said, "Summon him then and tell him to bring Fawkes with him."

"Yes, Heir Potter," Scarclaw said, as he snapped his fingers. A door, opposite the one that all the humans had entered through, opened and a goblin came in. Scarclaw talked to him in Gobbledygook, before he bowed and left the room, closing the door behind him.

Clearing his throat, Scarclaw said, "Now, Heir Potter, while we await Dumbledore's arrival, we can go over the rest of your results."

Harry nodded, before Scarclaw looked down at the results in front of him and said, "Well, I can already see that this is going to come as a shock to many of you. Of course, for the time being, only myself and Heirs Potter and Malfoy will actually be able to hear all the details."

After a moment's pause, Scarclaw continued. "Heir Hadrian Potter, you are the pureblood son of James Potter and Lily Potter née Evans, grandson of Fleamont Potter and Euphemia Potter née Fontaine, William Evans, and Cassiopeia Evans," Scarclaw paused here, before he read, "née Black."

"Wait, Cassiopeia Black?" Draco asked, shocked. "She's my mother's grandaunt. She never married or had children."

"That's what you believe to be true, Heir Malfoy," Scarclaw said, "only because the Fidelius Charm prevents the truth from being known." Gesturing towards the others in the room, he added, "You only need look at everyone else here."

Draco had to admit that it didn't look like his parents, Sirius, or Gragnast were following the conversation.

"They can't hear us?"

Shaking his head, Scarclaw said, "As long as we're discussing your lineage, no. The Fidelius blocks them from hearing it because doing so might allow them to figure out by process of elimination who your ancestors are. Now, shall I continue?"

Harry nodded.

"Great-grandson of Henry Potter, Katerina Potter née Roche, Brennan Fontaine, Cassandra Fontaine née Scamander, Charles Evans, Andrea Evans née Weiss, Cygnus Black, and Violetta Black née Bulstrode."

"Hmm," Draco said. "Fontaine and Roche are both two of the noble houses that have gone extinct in their male lines."

"That is correct, Draco," Lucius said, as he actually heard his son's comment. Shaking his head, he said, "That was the strangest feeling. Until you spoke just now, it almost felt like I'd gone deaf. I knew the three of you were speaking, but I couldn't hear anything."

Gragnast stroked his beard as he said, "I imagine that the Fidelius allowed us to hear Heir Malfoy's comment about Houses Fontaine and Roche because they're not connected to any protected information."

"My grandmother Euphemia Potter was born into House Fontaine," Harry stated. "And my great-grandmother, Katerina Potter, was born into House Roche. It's only the Evans family that's protected by this Fidelius apparently, so I guess that makes sense."

"So does this mean that Harry will be Heir Fontaine and Heir Roche now, as well as Heir Potter?" Draco asked.

"It's possible," Scarclaw said. "We won't know for sure, of course, until the final results are finished. I'm not privy to the transactions of every single customer at Gringotts, so, I can't be sure that you and Heir Potter are not the only ones who have done the Ritual of Blood Inheritance."

Nodding, Gragnast said, "Indeed. If anyone else has done it, their results finish before yours, and they also have connections of Houses Fontaine or Roche, they'd become the heir or lord instead. The Ritual works on a first come, first serve basis, so if somebody's test finished before Heir Potter's, they'd get it instead of him."

"Assuming, of course, that they did the test before him," Scarclaw said. "Anyone who does the test after him and doesn't do as many generations, resulting in their test finishing first, wouldn't become heir or lord until Heir Potter's results are available. And then he'd have to officially relinquish the position for them to get it instead."

Harry nodded, before he motioned for Scarclaw to continue reading his results.

"Let's see here," Scarclaw said as he looked at the results, before he continued. "Unsurprisingly, Heir Potter you are a natural Parseltongue, and through your joining with Heir Malfoy, a natural Occlumens. You also carry a dormant Metamorphmagus ability."

"I take it that's through Harry's own connections to the House of Black, rather than because of our joining?"

"Correct, Heir Malfoy," Scarclaw said. "The ritual master says that it's possible that since both of you have a dormant ability, it might become active once you reach the age of fifteen and go through your magical inheritance."

"Bonding with a powerful enough familiar could also do it," Gragnast said, prompting Harry and Draco to look at each other and smile.

"Would a Jeweled Runeserpent be powerful enough?" Harry asked, as he turned back to look at the goblins. "Draco and I recently acquired one that we plan to bond with."

"I'm unfamiliar with that particular creature," Scarclaw said.

"It's a crossbreed from a family of snake breeders on the west coast of America," Draco said. "A cross between a runespoor and a horned serpent."

Both goblins were quiet for a moment, as they kept their faces neutral, even though they were both impressed. It wouldn't do to show that to a group of humans, however.

"Yes, I believe that may well be powerful enough," Gragnast said.

"Cool," Harry said. "That could be very useful, as we could then maybe at least make ourselves look identical."

"And why would we do that, Harry?" Draco asked.

"If we ever do find ourselves in the muggle world, it'll be necessary, Draco," Harry answered. "I mean we'll still get stares because muggles aren't used to seeing conjoined twins, but we'd be getting far more if we weren't identical."

"Ah, yes," Draco said, as he remembered what Harry had wrote in the letter to Hermione. He was willing to admit that if he did end up liking muggle underwear as Harry thought he would, that it would be nice if they could go out and buy it themselves, instead of having somebody else do it for them.

"Anyway, as for your natural scholastic aptitudes, Heir Potter," Scarclaw said. "You're a prodigy in Defense Against the Dark Arts, a Potions genius, and gifted in Transfiguration and Charms."

"Wait, what?" Draco asked. "Harry Potter a Potions genius? How?"

"We have a ruddy berk for a professor," Harry answered, as he held up his hand and added, "I understand that you might like him, Draco, being that he's your Head of House, but he's really not the best teacher. He never shows us how to properly prepare the ingredients for anything that we brew. He just puts the recipe up on the blackboard and tells us to brew it and then proceeds to stalk around the room like an overgrown bat and insult the efforts of anyone not in Slytherin House."

Sirius burst out laughing at this, as Narcissa asked, "Is this true?" She had obviously never had Severus Snape as a teacher, considering that she was five years older than him and had thus had Professor Slughorn.

"Yeah, it's true," Draco said.

"He also seems to take particular joy in harassing the Gryffindors," Harry added. "Heir Neville Longbottom's boggart takes the form of Professor Snape because he's constantly belittling and yelling at him during class. Or coming up behind him and slamming his fist down on Neville's workstation to make him jump and mess up what he's doing."

Shaking his head, Harry said, "And then there's me. He hated my father and he takes it out on me. I was actually looking forward to Potions class, but in the very first class back in first year, he singled me out because he thought I wasn't paying attention to what he was saying. If he'd bothered to look at the paper in front of me, he'd know that I was actually writing what he'd been saying word for word."

"What did he do?" Sirius asked, almost growling.

"Proceeded to ask me various Potions-related questions," Harry said. "Questions which I later learned were fifth-year material and then taking points from Gryffindor for not opening a book before coming to his class when I didn't know the answers. Basically, he made me dislike the subject before I even learned anything."

"I'm going to have to have words with him about this," Lucius said. "He shouldn't be antagonizing Heir Longbottom that way, or you Harry, and I'm certainly not going to allow him to continue doing anything which might now adversely affect Draco's education."

Narcissa nodded, although she didn't say anything because at that moment, the door they'd all entered through opened and Albus Dumbledore entered, with Fawkes resting on his shoulder.

-o-0-o-

To say that Albus was surprised to be summoned to Gringotts and told to bring Fawkes with him would have been an understatement. That paled in comparison, however, when he was told the reason for him being summoned. Or at least as much as the Fidelius Charm would allow him to know.

"You want to go to Nurmengard and see Grindelwald?" Albus asked.

"Yes, Headmaster," Harry said. "I know you probably didn't hear much of what I just said, as the Fidelius is getting in the way, but I want these spells that he cast on my family gone and as the one who cast them, he's the only one that can remove them."

Fawkes trilled softly and after a moment, Albus sighed and nodded. "Fawkes has indicated that you're telling the truth, Harry." Standing up, he said, "Very well, grab my hand and we'll go." Looking at Lucius, Narcissa, and Sirius, he added, "I'm sorry but the three of you will have to wait here. There's a limit to how many people a phoenix can flash at once."

He paused for a moment, before adding, "Two is the usual limit, although Fawkes assures me that because they now share a body, he can take Harry, Draco, and myself to Austria and back safely. If he tried to take the rest of you as well it would trigger an early burning and prevent him from being able to shield us from the flames… which would be fatal for us since we don't have Fawkes's ability to be reborn in the flames."

Lucius, Narcissa, and Sirius nodded, as Sirius said, "We'll wait here then."

His tone indicated that he didn't like it, even if he understood the reason for it. A moment later, Albus, Harry, Draco, and Fawkes disappeared in a flash of flames.

-o-0-o-

Moments later, they found themselves standing in a dimly lit and rather dingy stone room. There was a cot pushed up against one side of the room with a chamber pot partially visible beneath it.

From behind them, they heard a cough, before a voice said, "Ah, I've been expecting you."

Turning, Albus, Harry, and Draco saw a frail and nearly bald old man dressed in rags, his legs shackled together by a heavy chain, the other end of which was bolted to the stone wall.

"Expecting us?" Harry asked.

The old man, who had been sitting on the floor with his legs against his chest, nodded as he struggled to get to his feet. Fawkes took pity on him after a moment and helped him stand, which had the man saying, "Thank you, Fawkes."

Moving across the room and sitting back down on the edge of the cot, the man turned to Harry and said, "I'm a Seer, so I foresaw Albus and Fawkes coming. And I saw you and your brother, although I'm afraid I don't know your name. I'm Gellert Grindelwald."

"I'm Heir Hadrian Potter," Harry said, as he motioned to Draco and added, "And this isn't my brother."

With a nod, Draco said, "I'm Heir Draco Malfoy. Harry and I were fused together following a nearly fatal splinching accident."

"Ah, I see," Gellert said. "Other than my food deliveries, which are brought by a deaf-mute house-elf, I don't usually get visitors. So, what brings you here, if I may ask?"

"My late mother was Lily Potter née Evans," Harry answered.

Grindelwald nodded. "I see. I assume then you're here about the Primogenitus and Fidelius I cast on the Evans family."

"Yes," Albus confirmed. "Why did you cast it to begin with?"

"A combination of revenge and spite," Gellert answered. "About ninety years ago now I had a summer fling with a man by the name of Charles Evans. Over the course of the two-and-a-half months that we were together, I fell head over heels in love with him. Unfortunately for me, he didn't return my feelings and dumped me at the end of the summer to wed the fiancé he never told me he had."

Hanging his head slightly, Gellert continued, "It was an arranged marriage and the contract had a virginity clause, requiring that his fiancé, Andrea Weiss, remain a virgin until their wedding night. They were in love, but he wanted sex, so unable to get it from her, he used me, and then dumped me as soon as he no longer needed me."

Looking up at Albus, Gellert said, "I stole the Elder Wand from Gregorovitch a week later and you know the rest."

"And you didn't foresee any of that happening?" Harry asked.

Shaking his head, Gellert said, "No, Seers don't get to choose their visions and at that point, I had never had any that directly involved me."

"Can you remove the spells?" Draco asked. "Charles Evans is long dead and it would make Harry's and my life easier if people knew that he was a pureblood."

"I can't."

"Can't or won't?" Harry asked.

"Can't, Heir Potter," Gellert answered. "I'd need the Elder Wand to remove them, since that's the wand I used to cast them. And I haven't been in possession of the Elder Wand since 1945, as Albus well knows."

"What is this Elder Wand you keep talking about?" Harry asked.

"It's the most famous wand in history," Albus said. "Known most commonly as the Elder Wand, although it's also been known as the Wand of Destiny and the Deathstick. It's one of the three Deathly Hallows, said to grant mastery over death if one were to ever unite all three."

"You mean like the Tale of the Three Brothers?" Draco asked. "I thought that was just a silly nursery story."

"A common belief by many," Gellert said. "Although that story holds far more truth than most realize."

"Indeed," Albus said, as he removed his wand from inside the folds of his robes. "Behold, the Elder Wand."

"You've actually been using it all these years, Albus?" Gellert asked, prompting Albus to nod. "I'm surprised. I would have thought you would have locked it away somewhere or tried to destroy it."

"I was hoping that I could use it to finally learn the truth about Ariana," Albus said. "Although, no matter what I do, it still alludes me."

"Ariana?" Harry and Draco asked in unison.

"Ariana Dumbledore," Gellert said with a heavy sigh. "She was the baby sister of Albus and Aberforth Dumbledore."

"She died in 1899," Albus said. "During a three-way duel between myself, Aberforth, and Gellert. Since then, my greatest desire and my greatest fear has been to figure out which one of us killed her."

"Oh Albus," Gellert said. "For a man as smart as you are, I'm surprised you haven't figured it out yet. None of us are responsible for Ariana's death."

"What? But…" Albus began, but Gellert cut him off.

"She was an Obscurial, Albus," Gellert said. "You know as well as I do that it's rare for an Obscurial to live past the age of ten. Ariana was already thirteen when she died. Your family keeping her hidden away and doing everything you could to keep her calm and happy probably prolonged her life, but witnessing the duel was too much. She lost control and her Obscurus took over. That's what killed her, not one of us."

"That doesn't really absolve us, Gellert," Albus said. "It just means that we're all to blame."

Gellert sighed. "She was a ticking time bomb, Albus, and living on borrowed time. If it hadn't been our duel it would have been something else. Do you honestly believe that you could have kept her hidden away, happy and calm, and away from anything that might have upset her for the rest of her life?"

When Albus didn't say anything, Gellert shook his head. "She was a teenager, Albus! Honestly, how long do you think it would have been before she rebelled against being kept hidden away? You think she was going to be willing to live hidden away from the world, forever?"

Shaking his head, Gellert said, "Your parents were kidding themselves if they thought they could keep her safe forever, even from herself. I suppose it's possible that she could have been like Aurelius and gone on to live well into her twenties, but its impossible to ever really know. What I do know, however, is that teenagers are rebellious and do not take kindly to being locked away from the world and not allowed to do anything which might expose them to negative emotions."

Harry and Draco nodded. "He is right you know," Harry said. "Teenage angst and rebellion would have caught up eventually."

"Yes, and when it did, trying to keep her under control would likely have only made the resulting outburst worse," Draco added. "It doesn't sound like anyone except Ariana was hurt, but if she'd eventually had enough with exile… well, Obscurials can level entire city blocks."

There was a time when Harry might have been asking what exactly an Obscurus or Obscurial was, but he'd learned about them last year. As they were one of the many dark creatures that Remus taught them about in Defense Against the Dark Arts. He truly was the best teacher for the subject that Hogwarts had ever had, at least in Harry's own experience.

"I understand what you're all saying," Albus said. "And if it was anyone other than my sister, I'd be agreeing with you." He sighed. "I guess it's just hard for me because I'm too close to the situation."

Wanting to change the subject, Albus shook his head and said, "Harry, Draco, wands out and train them on Gellert."

Harry and Draco looked at each other for a moment, before shrugging their shoulders and doing as the Headmaster asked.

Pulling a second wand from the folds of his robe, Albus said, "Here's my original wand. I want you to swear a wizard's oath on your magic, your honor, and your life that if I give you the Elder Wand you will not try to escape and that you will not harm me, Fawkes, Harry or Draco. And that you will relinquish it as soon as you've removed the spells from the Evans line."

Gellert grunted. "Believe it or not, Albus, I've had a lot of time to think these last few decades and I've realized that my past actions were wrong. But, I'll do as you ask."

Oath given, Gellert said, "Harry, Draco, don't be surprised by what I'm about to do. Albus knows it's necessary."

Before anyone could react, Gellert pointed the wand he'd given the oath with at Dumbledore and said, "_**Expelliarmus! Stupefy!**_"

The Elder Wand flew out of Albus's hand and into Gellert's awaiting hand, although he kept the tip pointed at the floor, as he said, "The Elder Wand resists working properly for anyone who hasn't won it. So taking it from Albus by disarming and stunning him was necessary in order to transfer its loyalty back to me so that I can remove the spells on your family line, Harry."

After a brief pause, he added, "There have been many people throughout the wand's history who thought it could only be transferred from one owner to the next through murder. Hence the Deathstick moniker, but I suspected that wasn't true and I realized I was right when I took the wand from Gregorovitch… who as far as I'm aware, although I don't exactly get the papers here, is still alive and well."

Nodding, Harry said, "Okay, but how were you able to vow not to hurt Professor Dumbledore and then stun him?"

"The fact that I'm still alive after doing so considering I swore upon my magic, my honor, and my life," Gellert said, "should tell you that a stunning spell doesn't count as hurting him. Maybe if one was hit with multiple stunners at once it could cause damage, but one by itself? It doesn't hurt the target and wears off on its own eventually, provided the counter isn't cast."

"Indeed, Harry, I'm not hurt," Albus said, as he shook his head and threw off the curse. "I was also aware of the requirement for the wand. Anyway, Gellert, if you would be so kind as to remove those spells?"

Gellert nodded before he pointed his wand at Harry and Draco and said, "_**Finite Incantatum Maximus!**_"

"That's it?" Draco asked. "The spell is off?"

"It should be, yes," Gellert said. "Although to test it out, perhaps you should try to reveal something that the goblins revealed to your during your Ritual of Blood Inheritance, Heir Potter?"

"How did you?" Harry asked.

Gellert laughed. "Give me credit for having some intelligence, Heir Potter. I didn't become one of most powerful and feared Dark Lords of the last century by being stupid. The fact that you even knew that the Primogenitus and Fidelius were cast on the Evans line should have been impossible for you to know without me as the Secret Keeper telling you, since that too was protected by the Fidelius that I cast. Only the Ritual of Blood Inheritance would be powerful enough to reveal that information, however temporarily."

"My maternal grandmother was Cassiopeia Evans née Black," Harry stated.

Albus's eyes widened as he heard what Harry said. "Cassiopeia Black? But I thought Lily's mother… ah, of course. I'm guessing the marriage didn't last and William Evans must have remarried. So the woman I knew as Lily's mother must have been her stepmother, even if she didn't know it."

"I don't know," Harry said with a one-shouldered shrug. "However, it would seem that the spell is off now since you heard that, so I'm assuming it shouldn't be too hard to find out now, as the true records should now be visible."

"Indeed, they should," Gellert said.

Using a bit of wandless magic to summon his old wand from the cot next to Gellert, Albus said, "_**Expelliarmus! Stupefy!**_"

After reclaiming the Elder Wand, Albus put his original wand back into the folds of his robe, before waving the Elder Wand at Gellert and saying, "_**Rennervate!**_"

"And now that we've done what we came here for," Albus said, "Fawkes?"

The phoenix nodded, as he flew up into the air at which point Harry and Albus each grabbed onto one of Fawkes's talons. A moment later, Fawkes, Albus, Harry, and Draco disappeared in a flash of flames.

Gellert sighed. "Alone with my thoughts once more," before he moved to lie down on his cot and soon fell asleep.

-o-0-o-

To be continued…

And there's Ch11 of 'The Battle is Joined'. So the Primogenitus and Fidelius Charms are off. Note that this doesn't change anything in regards to Petunia and Dudley, they're still squibs. Although, it does mean that it's possible that Dudley's firstborn child could now have magic. Not that he's going to be having children anytime soon, seeing as how he's only fourteen.


	12. Reactions,Exercise,andKissing LessonsPt1

The Battle is Joined

By J.C. Vascardi

-o-0-o-

Chapter Twelve, Part One:

Reactions, Exercise, and… Kissing Lessons?

-o-0-o-

As Fawkes flashed back into the meeting room at Gringotts with Albus, Harry, and Draco, those remaining in the room—Lucius, Narcissa, and Sirius—sat up a bit straighter.

Harry wasn't surprised to see that both of the goblins had left because time was money, after all, and they no doubt had better and far more profitable things to do than sit in the meeting room twiddling their thumbs as they waited for the group that had gone to Nurmengard to return.

"Scarclaw and Gragnast had other meetings to attend," Remus said, as Albus, Harry, and Draco sat down, while Fawkes perched on the edge of the table. "They said we can use the room as long as we need to, however."

"So, did Grindelwald remove his spells?" Lucius asked.

"Yes, he did," Harry confirmed.

"Good," Narcissa said. "Out of curiosity, did he tell you why he cast them in the first place?"

"Revenge," Harry replied. "I guess many years ago before he even started his rise to power as a Dark Lord, he had a summer fling with my great-grandfather, Charles Evans. Grindelwald fell in love, but Charles didn't return the feelings. He was in love with my great-grandmother, Andrea Weiss, who he was contractually betrothed to."

Nodding, Draco finished. "There was a virginity clause in the contract requiring that Andrea be a virgin on the wedding night. Charles wanted sex, however, so he used Grindelwald to get it and then dumped him at the end of summer, leaving him heartbroken and vowing revenge."

"So, why the Primogenitus Curse and the Fidelius Charm?" Lucius asked. "The Evans family is a muggle family, I don't understand why they were cast in the first place."

"Except that they aren't," Harry said. "Turns out the Evans family is a pureblood family, but that was put under the Fidelius, so everyone who knew about it forgot and wouldn't know unless Grindelwald, as the Secret Keeper, told them the truth."

"Hmm, do you know when Charles Evans got married?" Lucius asked.

"No, I don't offhand," Harry said. "In truth, I know way more about my father's family than my mother's. I tried to do a bit of research once, but I never found much. And I certainly couldn't ask my Aunt Petunia, as she can barely stand the sight of me, as her jealousy over not being a witch like her little sister has made her very bitter."

"Which it turns out, she didn't have to be," Draco said. "She doesn't have magic because she's firstborn, so the Primogenitus Curse suppressed her magic and that of her firstborn and only child, Dudley. If it wasn't for that curse, Petunia would likely have finished Hogwarts two years before Lily Potter and Dudley would be in Harry's and my year."

Everyone fell silent for a moment at this, which is when they noticed that scratching of a quill on parchment. Looking over they saw Albus writing something. Finishing with a flourish he folded parchment over and sealed it before holding it out, as Fawkes took it in his beak.

"Take this to the Ministry Records Department," Albus said. "And then return with what they give you."

Fawkes nodded before spreading his wings and disappearing in a flash of flames, as Albus looked at the others and said, "That should get us some answers. That note tells the clerk at the Ministry Records Department to pull all the vital records they have for Lily Evans Potter and anyone else with the surname Evans for the last hundred years. I marked it with the highest possible priority under my authority as Chief Warlock."

Sirius grinned. "If the Evans family is in fact pureblood and that's been hidden by the Fidelius all these years, I'll bet the records clerk is going to be quite surprised when they find all the records that they didn't think existed."

Albus nodded. "Yes, the Fidelius would have rendered the records essentially invisible, so that people's eyes would simply go right past them as if they weren't even there."

"Hiding in plain sight," Harry said.

"Indeed," Lucius said. "The reason why I asked when Charles Evans married Andrea Weiss is that now that I think about it, I do vaguely remember reading about a pureblood family named Weiss."

He paused here, to gather his thoughts, before continuing, "A branch of the family moved to the colonies as one of their twelve original families, but there was also a branch that remained here in England. They weren't included in the Sacred Twenty-Eight, but with this Fidelius, there might be more than Twenty-Eight families that should have been included."

Tapping her chin, Narcissa said, "I believe it was the rather outspoken pro-muggle views of Henry Potter during his tenure on the Wizengamot that was a chief reason why the Potters weren't included in the Sacred Twenty-Eight. Something which proved rather controversial, since they are, along with the Blacks and Malfoys, one of the last surviving Most Ancient and Noble Houses."

Sirius nodded. "Yes, I remember hearing my father and grandfather talking about it when I was a child. They didn't believe that any noble family that was still pureblood should have been omitted from the Sacred Twenty-Eight, no matter how controversial their views were."

"Indeed, they shouldn't be," a voice said, as everyone turned and saw Lord Arcturus Black leaning heavily on his cane in the open doorway that nobody had even heard open.

Coming in and closing the door behind him, he said, "I was on my way back to Arlington Grange after I met with Minister Fudge when the Black family account manager met me in the Ministry atrium. Told me that I should come down to the bank as soon as possible, as there was an important matter involving the Blacks being discussed that would be of great interest to me."

Sitting down, he spied Sirius and said, "Hello grandson." Sirius nodded respectively, as Arcturus then said, "Lucius, Narcissa, Albus," before his eyes landed on Draco and Harry, "and Draco and Harry. I must admit that even though I knew it was possible when Lucius told me of your accident, I could scarcely believe it."

"We both still have some difficulty believing it ourselves, sir," Harry said. "And we're living it."

Arcturus nodded. "Yes, I imagine going from two separate people to sharing a single two-headed body in the blink of an eye would take some getting used to."

"You can say that again," Draco said.

Looking around the room with an expectant look on his face, Arcturus asked, "So, what is the topic of this meeting?"

"Harry and Draco recently did the Ritual of Blood Inheritance," Sirius explained to his grandfather. "We were just perusing their preliminary results, which brought some surprises where Harry was concerned."

"Such as?" Arcturus asked.

Harry and Draco, with some help from Albus, explained their trip to Nurmengard and the reason for it.

"Hmm, interesting," Arcturus said. "The Primogenitus Curse actually has two different versions. One which affects only the firstborn child of the firstborn child, and a second lesser-known version which affects both the firstborn son and firstborn daughter."

"Is there a way to tell which one was used?" Harry asked. "Grindelwald didn't volunteer which one he used and I don't think it showed in my preliminary test results."

"The first version affects only firstborn children of the firstborn child," Arcturus explained. "The second version affects more but is also more selective in how it does it. The second version continues to affect the firstborn son and daughter of every firstborn son, in addition to the firstborn child of all other sons.

"So, if, for example, a person affected by the curse has five sons, then the firstborn son would be a squib and their firstborn son and daughter would be squibs. However, the firstborn child of the other four sons would also be squibs."

Noting that Lord Black was stressing the word son, Narcissa asked, "Does this second version affect daughters differently?"

Nodding, Arcturus said, "Yes. Firstborn daughters of the firstborn son will be squibs, as will the firstborn child of a person rendered a squib by the curse. But all other daughters—secondborn, thirdborn, etc.— will be unaffected, as will all of their children."

"We'll need more information before we can determine which version was cast," Draco said. "Harry's mother was a secondborn daughter. The firstborn daughter and her firstborn son are both squibs."

Lucius nodded. "What was your grandfather's name, Harry? And his wife?"

"William Evans," Harry answered. "Married to Cassiopeia Black."

Sirius, Narcissa, and Lucius were visibly confused by this, as Narcissa said, "That can't be right."

Nodding, Sirius added, "Cassiopeia never got married."

Arcturus sighed. "Actually, you're both wrong." Sirius and Narcissa looked at Arcturus at this, questioning looks on their faces, as he said, "My father, Sirius Black II, the Lord Black until he died in 1952, covered it up, but Cassiopeia was married to now that I think about it, William Evans."

Shaking his head, he said, "Thank Merlin she's dead, she'd be a horror to deal with now that the Fidelius is no longer in effect and it's no longer hidden that her husband was a pureblood. I'm assuming Grindelwald must have cast the spell in the early 1940s because I remember my father suddenly being incensed over his niece's marriage to a mudblood, even though by then they'd already had two children."

"He must have given permission for the marriage," Sirius said.

"Yes, he did," Arcturus agreed. "If I remember correctly, they got married in 1939, had their son Michael later that year, and then another son, Samuel, the following year. As long as a child's magic hasn't bloomed yet, either version of the Primogenitus Curse can render them a squib, even if they've already been born when the curse is cast. And indeed Michael was a squib and Samuel a halfblood, or so the Fidelius had us believe."

"That means that my aunt and my mum had two older brothers," Harry said, surprised. "I don't remember Aunt Petunia ever mentioning having brothers, not that she talked to me any more than absolutely necessary."

"Your aunt is only two years older than your mother, I believe," Albus said. "So, that means she was born in 1958, by which point her brothers would quite possibly have already moved out on their own."

"That is indeed possible," Arcturus said. "Michael would have been 19 and Samuel 18 when Petunia was born."

Shaking his head, he said, "My father covered up the marriage and annulled it because Cassiopeia never asked permission, which is required by law for all children of noble houses.

"Of course, I later had to annul the marriage a second time, as sometime in either 1957 or 58, Cassiopeia and William remarried, again without permission. They managed to hide it until shortly after Lily was born in 1960, which is when I annulled the marriage. After two annulments, they'd both had enough. I believe William remarried and Cassiopeia became the bitter old spinster woman that you all remember."

"I assume it was a love match than?" Narcissa asked. "If Cassiopeia chose to remarry William after the first annulment, even though she believes him to be a muggleborn?"

"Yes, it was a love match," Arcturus confirmed. "During their time apart, I guess William had started dating his second wife who he married almost immediately after the annulment in 1960. Cassiopeia later admitted to me that she'd used Amortentia to get William to marry her the second time, as after eighteen years apart, he'd fallen out of love, but she hadn't."

"William never pressed charges?" Lucius asked. "He would have been well within his rights to do so, being forced into marriage by a love potion. By law, since he wasn't in his right mind, he couldn't legally consent to either the marriage or sex, which means Cassiopeia raped him at least twice since they had two more children."

"You're correct, Lucius," Arcturus said with a sigh and a shake of his head. "Though it galled me to give any of the Black money to who I thought was a muggleborn, the thought of the scandal that would erupt if he pressed charges galled me more, so I got William to swear on his magic that he'd keep quiet and not press charges… in exchange for the princely sum of 250,000 galleons."

Before anyone could say anything else, Fawkes reappeared in a flash of flames and dropped a thick bundle of parchments on the table in front of Albus.

"Thank you, Fawkes," Albus said, as the phoenix bobbed its head up and down and trilled a pleasing note. "Well, the Ministry records on the Evans will hopefully give us a few more answers as to whether or not you have any other family out there, Harry, without having to wait for your ritual results to be finished next year."

Splitting the pile of parchments into three even piles, Albus handed one pile to Sirius, another to Harry and Draco, and kept the third for himself to peruse.

Pushing his half-moon spectacles up his nose, Albus looked at the first leaf of parchment and said, "Well, that's interesting."

Looking up from his own stack, Harry asked, "What is, Professor?"

"William's second marriage was to a Margaret Selwyn, a squib," Albus answered. "And they had two children together."

"Two children?" Harry asked. "You mean Mum had more than three siblings?"

Nodding, Albus said, "Yes, Harry, it would seem so. Two brothers, a sister, and a pair of identical twin half-brothers by her father's second marriage: Jasper and Kellan Evans."

Sirius tilted his head to the side, as a look of sudden recognition appeared on his face. "I remember them. They were two years below Lily at Hogwarts. They were in Ravenclaw." Eyes widening, as he remembered something else, he said, "They were married to Gideon and Fabian Prewett."

"They still are married to them," Albus said. "Gideon, Fabian, Jasper, and Kellan are still alive, albeit comatose in the Janus Thickey Ward at St. Mungo's for the last thirteen years."

"I think that gives you've got another cousin, Harry," Draco said, as he looked thoughtful for a moment. "Gideon's son Jaxon is in Slytherin in the year above us. Lots of the pureblood children look down on him for being a halfblood."

"Which it would seem he's not," Lucius said. "Gideon Prewett is a pureblood and we now know that William Evans is pureblood. And while the Selwyns no doubt don't acknowledge Margaret due to her squib status, she's still from one of the Sacred Twenty-Eight families and a pureblood in the strictest sense of the word."

"My sister Bella would dispute that," Narcissa said. "She'd insist that a squib is the same as a muggle, but then she always has been an idiot."

"Fabian and Kellan have twin sons, as well," Albus said with a smile to Harry. "Hufflepuffs Landon and London Prewett. They're also one year above you, as if I remember right, Gideon and Fabian Prewett were pregnant at the same time and gave birth within only hours of each other."

The room fell silent again for a few minutes, with the only noise being the turning of pages.

"Hmm, looks like Michael Evans married a muggle woman named Cassandra Wright," Draco said. "And it looks like they had a daughter named Laura, who was a squib due to the curse."

"Laura married Jonathan Entwhistle," Harry said, as he read from the page. "Wait, Entwhistle…" flipping through to the next page of records, he said, "aha, there, I knew that name sounded familiar. There's a Kevin Entwhistle in our year, Drake. A muggleborn Ravenclaw, I think."

"Yes, though it seems he's not muggleborn at all," Draco said. "He's actually a halfblood, but since the Fidelius hid the fact that his mother is from a pureblood family..."

"Looks like he's also two older sisters and an older brother," Harry said, as he looked through the records. "Jonathan Jr., Jocelyn, and Annabelle."

"Jonathan Jr. and Jocelyn were squibs due to the curse," Draco said. "Though it looks like Jocelyn died a few weeks before her first birthday from… what's SIDS?"

"Sudden Infant Death Syndrome, Mr. Malfoy," Albus answered. "It's when a seemingly healthy infant younger than a year old dies suddenly, usually in their sleep, for no discernable reason."

A few more minutes later, Sirius said, "Looks like Samuel Evans also married a muggle woman named Charlotte Walker, with whom he had two children. A curse-squib, Samuel Evans Jr., who died at age 15 in 1973, from a muggle automobile accident, and a daughter Evelyn, born the same year as Lily."

"Did Evelyn have any kids?" Harry asked, assuming that Sam Jr. didn't if he died at fifteen.

Turning another leaf of parchment, Sirius said, "Yes, she married a muggle man… one Edward Finch-Fletchley Jr."

Harry's eyes widened. "Wait, did you say Finch-Fletchley?" Sirius nodded, prompting Harry to ask, "Do they have a son named Justin?"

Looking at the records, Sirius nodded a minute later and said, "Yeah, they do. Two children, sons Edward III, another curse-squib, born in '79, and Justin, born in 1980."

"He's in our year, isn't he?" Draco asked as he thought the name sounded familiar somehow.

"Yeah, Drake, he is," Harry said. "You remember the Dueling Club in second-year? You conjured a snake to attack me, but it started hissing at a muggleborn boy instead?"

"Everyone thought you were egging it on with Parseltongue," Draco said, remembering the incident. "Was that Justin?"

"Yup," Harry said. "He was petrified not long afterward, which had everyone in school thinking I was the Heir of Slytherin."

"Well, not everyone," Draco said. "Almost nobody in Slytherin house thought that."

"How comforting," Harry said.

Turning to Albus, Harry said, "Headmaster, I'm sure Hogwarts has them, could I have the addresses for the Prewetts, Entwhistles, and Finch-Fletchleys? I'd like to let them know about the test results if I can."

Nodding, Albus said, "Of course, Harry."

Usually, the Headmaster wouldn't be giving out a student's personal information like their home address, but he figured since Harry was family, it would be okay to do so. Besides the Prewetts, Entwhistles, and Finch-Fletchleys had a right to know about the test results, since they affected them.

-o-0-o-

Three days later, Dobby popped into Harry and Draco's temporary bedroom carrying a large package wrapped in brown paper and tied with string.

"What's this?" Draco asked.

"From Miss Hermione Granger," Dobby answered. "Package was too big for OWL post since Hermione couldn't shrink it. So she asked Dobby to deliver it."

What Dobby left out, since he wasn't sure how his former Master Draco would react to it, was that Hermione had insisted on paying Dobby for the delivery, even though he would have very happily done it for free since it was partly for Harry Potter.

"Why couldn't she shrink it?" Draco asked, looking confused. "Surely she knows the spell?"

"Of course she knows the spell, Drake. But remember, she's muggleborn and lives with her muggle parents. If she uses magic at home, the Ministry will detect it via The Trace and send her a warning letter about breaching the Decree for the Reasonable Restriction of Underage Sorcery."

"Oh, yes, that," Draco said. "Living in a magical household, I've always ignored that rule." Looking down at the parcel, Draco blushed slightly and said, "I suppose this must be the underwear we asked Granger to buy for us, although I can't say I was expecting the parcel to be quite this large."

"Neither did I," Harry agreed, as they over to the bed, sat down, and Harry took off the letter attached to the parcel.

Draco grabbed a letter opener from the desk as they passed, so he quietly slit the envelope open, before putting it down next to him on the bed and grabbing the envelope so that Harry could pull out the letter inside.

He didn't bother reading it aloud, as he figured Draco was close enough that he could easily read it for himself.

_Dear Harry and Malfoy,_

_First things first, Malfoy, I accept your apology. As for your comments about pureblood life, provided that your culture doesn't include treating muggleborns like me as inferior and your religion doesn't involve ritual human sacrifice, I can respect your desire to adhere to them._

"Ritual human sacrifice?" Draco asked. "Really?"

"Can you blame her, Draco? Muggleborns and muggle-raised come into the magical world knowing absolutely nothing about the world they're entering. Many of them not even realizing they had magic until they got their Hogwarts letter."

Shaking his head, Harry added, "Honestly, many of the instances of them trying to erase wizarding culture that purebloods like to point to can simply be chalked up to them not knowing anything about wizarding culture. So they adhere to the culture that they do know."

"Huh, I hadn't thought of that," Draco said. "I suppose it makes sense that we can't expect them to observe a culture they know nothing about. As for religion, I don't expect any of them to convert to my own, just so long as they don't pressure me to convert to theirs."

"I suppose we're going to have to have that talk at some point," Harry said. "About religion, but for the time being, let's get back to Hermione's letter so that we can see what she's sent us."

Draco nodded, as they both went back to reading.

_If you've truly committed to being a better person in the future, than I'm willing to get to know you better and maybe, someday, even call you a friend. Just don't ever ask me to apologize for punching you last year because you deserved it._

Harry laughed at that, as Draco said, "Shut up."

Harry continued laughing despite Draco's admonition which made Draco grit his teeth in exasperation. Not only that Harry was laughing at his expense but that he could literally feel Harry shaking with laughter… and that as a result, even his side of their shared body was shaking with laughter.

"Damn it, Harry, stop," Draco whined, which only made Harry laugh harder.

Desperate for his bodymate's infectious laughter at his expense to stop, Draco turned his eyes to Hermione's letter in their lap which Harry had let go of when he started laughing at the memory of Hermione punching Draco last year.

Scanning the letter, he screwed up his face in confusion at some of the strange terms he'd never heard before and then asked, "Harry, what's a jockstrap and a G-string?"

Harry immediately stopped laughing, as he asked, "What? Why are you bringing those up?"

"Because they're mentioned in Hermione's letter?"

Harry scoffed as he looked down at the next paragraph of Hermione's letter. He'd told her to buy his preferred longer-legged boxer-briefs known as midway briefs, so he had no idea why she'd be mentioning jockstraps or G-strings.

All color drained from his face as he read the next paragraphs.

_Anyway, on the subject of why you wrote to me, there's really no need to be embarrassed. Maybe it's a boy thing but really? Do you think I'm embarrassed at the idea of buying men's underwear? My Mum has been doing it for my Dad for years now and she's certainly never had an issue with it. She gladly took me shopping after I explained why it was necessary… though that might have taken slightly longer due to having to explain some of the magical concepts._

_Now, Harry, I know you said that you preferred midway briefs, which I did get you some of, but I thought—and my Mum agreed—that wouldn't be fair for Draco. I did as you suggested and researched 18__th__ and 19__th__-century underwear and while your preferred style is similar to them and might be what Draco is most comfortable with, I figured he should have the chance to determine that for himself._

_So included in the parcel are several pairs of your requested midway briefs, regular boxer-briefs, trunks, boxers, briefs, bikinis, thongs, jockstraps, and G-strings all in the color preferences you noted so that Draco can try them all and figure out which ones he likes best._

"Oh sweet Circe's sagging tits," Harry groaned as he imagined not only Hermione but her mother buying his underwear for him.

Sure, intellectually, he knew that she was probably right and that there was no need to be embarrassed. His Aunt Petunia bought much of Vernon and Dudley's underwear for them, after all. Which meant that she'd also been the one to buy much of his own underwear since they'd been Dudley's originally.

That did nothing to lessen his embarrassment, however, and he knew that he was no doubt blushing redder than the Weasley family's hair.

"Harry?" Draco asked. "I repeat what is a jockstrap? Or a G-string? Or a thong? Are those even words?"

"They're words, yes," Harry said with a sigh. "They're all different types of underwear. Muggles have several different types of them, so Hermione bought some of everything so that you can figure out which ones you like the best."

What Harry didn't say is that he'd never tried many of the different types listed in the letter. But then that's because, until his fusion with Draco, he'd been wearing Dudley's magically cleaned cast-offs, so he was limited to the styles that Dudley wore, which were almost all boxers, boxer-briefs, or midway briefs, with the very occasional and rare pair of briefs thrown in.

"It's easier to show you," Harry said, as he set Hermione's letter aside since there was only one very short paragraph left before her signature which basically just said that if they needed any more shopping done for them in the muggle world, she was happy to help.

Reaching over and grabbing the letter opener that Draco had placed next to them on the bed, Harry used it to cut the string on the large parcel and then break the tape holding the brown wrapping paper closed.

On top were packages of Harry's preferred midway briefs, which he'd dubbed his preferred style of the styles he'd tried.

"Woah," Draco said, as he picked up one of the packages and looked at the image of the shirtless man wearing only his underwear. "That's kind of hot, actually. Is all muggle underwear packaged this way?"

"I don't know about all, but a lot of it, yeah," Harry said. "It's marketing. Put a picture of a hot guy wearing the product on the packaging so that men can picture themselves wearing them. Or so the girlfriends and wives who might be doing the buying for them can do so. It also catches the eye and makes you look at the product."

"Well, I'll give them this, muggles certainly know how to package underwear in an eye-catching way. All of my underwear came from Mrs. Twillfit's Millinery next door to Twillfit and Tatting's on Diagon Alley, and she packages it in plain brown paper."

After a moment of silence, Draco asked, "Who's Calvin Klein?"

"A clothing designer," Harry answered. "In the muggle world, it's common for the name of the designer whose company made them be written on both the packaging and on the waistband of the underwear itself. Several different fashion houses make underwear, so the name is their company brand name."

"Ah, I see," Draco said as he and Harry took all the packages of midway briefs out and set them aside.

Under that were regular boxer-briefs, then boxers, then briefs, and then trunks.

"Um, is it is just me, or is there less and less fabric as we go down?"

Harry sighed. "It's not just you."

Next up were the bikinis, and then thongs. It was as they cleared that layer that Draco's eyes widened and he said, "Woah! What the bloody hell is this? Where's the back?"

Harry's chin dropped down and hit his chest as he said, "There isn't one. You asked what a jockstrap is? Well, this is it. It only covers the cock and balls and leaves the back entirely exposed."

"Why for Merlin's sake?"

"They're a popular option for athletic people," Harry answered. "They're designed to support and protect the cock and balls while playing sports. A cup can be placed inside of them for extra protection."

"A cup? What?"

"An athletic cup," Harry said. "I'm not talking about the thing you drink out of. It's a hard piece of plastic that goes over your genitals so that if you get hit there while playing sports, it's not gonna hurt as much."

"Ah, okay," Draco said. "But why is there nothing in the back?"

"Less material means they're less restrictive which grants greater freedom of movement, and they're also cooler which means less discomfort from sweating."

Draco shuddered. "Malfoys don't sweat. It's undignified."

"You will once we start exercising to get you in shape," Harry said with an amused shake of his head.

Taking a moment longer to look at the packages of jockstraps, they then found the G-strings on the bottom.

"Oh Merlin's hairy balls," Draco said. "This is… this is… I don't have words."

"Yeah, I'm with you on that."

The two boys just silently stared at the packages for a moment, before finally, Draco said, "Well, I suppose the guy looks hot wearing them and I guess they'd be great if you're in a hurry and want one less thing to pull down for sex."

"I suppose there is that, yes," Harry said. "Still not sure I'm too keen on wearing them though."

"I'm with you for the most part."

"The most part?"

"Well, they could come in handy at some point. Like if we manage to get with Roger and Cedric… if we want something sexy to wear before we take them to bed."

Harry blushed but nodded.

-o-0-o-

To be continued…

So there you have Part One of Chapter Twelve of 'The Battle is Joined'. I'll likely write part two and then turn my attention to another of my fics. Knights isn't likely though, since it just got 4 chapters in a row. Merlin knows I've got plenty to choose from, however, so we'll see where the Muses lead.


	13. Reactions,Exercise,andKissing LessonsPt2

The Battle is Joined

By J.C. Vascardi

-o-0-o-

Chapter Twelve, Part Two:

Reactions, Exercise, and… Kissing Lessons?

-o-0-o-

The following day, Harry and Draco stepped out of the Floo at Number 12 Grimmauld Place. It was one of the two London townhouses of the Black family and where Sirius had grown up. It was also Unplottable and had been placed under the Fidelius Charm with Sirius himself as the Secret Keeper.

Sirius hadn't been too keen on returning to his childhood home, but Arcturus had asked him to do so. The Lord Black wanted to know that his grandson and heir was safe until he could get Sirius's conviction overturned.

Progress had been made on that front since Arcturus's visit to the Ministry, as Cornelius had rescinded the Kiss on Sight order for Sirius. Amelia Bones also said that she would immediately open an investigation to determine if Sirius had ever received a trial and if he hadn't promised that she would make sure that he did.

In the meantime, however, Arcturus wanted to make sure that his grandson stayed safe and out of sight. He wasn't about to allow him to risk his life and get himself killed by some overzealous civilian who decided to take the law into their own hands and eliminate the dangerous criminal Sirius Black.

"Ah, Harry, Draco, welcome to my childhood nightmare," Sirius said from his place at the kitchen table, since the Floo was in the basement kitchen of the house.

"Nightmare?" Draco asked.

"Yes," Sirius answered. "I don't suppose you ever met my mother, Draco? She became something of a recluse after my father died."

"No, I didn't," Draco said. "Mum and Dad went to her funeral, but I stayed home with Grandfather Abraxas and Grandmother Malinda."

Malinda Malfoy née Goyle was Lucius's mother and the first cousin of Gregory Goyle's grandfather. Her husband, Abraxas, died of Dragon Pox when Draco was nine years old, but as Walburga Black had died in 1985, he'd still been alive and Lord Malfoy at the time.

At only sixty-four, Malinda Malfoy was still alive, although Draco hadn't seen her in a little over six months, as after her husband died she became a world traveler. She was frequently away from home, which Draco suspected was her way of avoiding the memories of her late husband.

Her travels usually left her out of contact with the family for months at a time, as she traveled from place to place all over the world. Honestly, Draco wouldn't be surprised if she hadn't even heard yet about his presumed death, let alone his joining with Harry.

"Be glad that you never met her, Draco," Sirius said. "She almost made your Aunt Bellatrix look sane by comparison."

Draco could only stare in shock at Sirius because he found it very hard to comprehend how anybody could be so completely bat shit crazy that they made Bellatrix Black Lestrange look sane by comparison. Draco had never actually met Bellatrix, as she went to prison when he was only a year old, but he'd heard plenty of stories from his mother.

"Who's Bellatrix Lestrange?" Harry asked.

"She's my Mum's eldest sister," Draco answered. "She's locked up in Azkaban right now, along with her husband Rodolphus and brother-in-law Rabastan."

"She was one of You-Know-Who's staunchest and most devoted Death Eaters," Sirius added. "The three Draco mentioned plus a boy named Barty Crouch Jr. were sent to Azkaban because they attacked Neville's parents."

"Neville Longbottom?" Harry asked.

"Yes," Sirius confirmed. "Frank and Alice Longbottom are in the Janus Thickey Ward at St. Mungo's to this day. Bella and the others took turns holding them both under the Cruciatus Curse until their minds broke beyond repair."

"That's horrible," Harry said.

He was pleased when he could see Draco nodding out of the corner of his eye.

"So, why'd you ask us over here, Sirius?"

Sirius just smiled, as Remus came down the steps from upstairs and said, "Because I asked him to."

"Hey Remus," Harry said with a smile.

"I'm living here with Sirius," Remus said. "So he's not all alone here."

"There are no house-elves here?" Draco asked.

"No, there's two," Sirius answered. "Thankfully, my grandfather took Kreacher, the house-elf who practically worships my mother and hates me. Ordered him to come serve at Arlington Grange and Grandfather made it very clear to him he's not to come back here for any reason unless ordered to do so by Grandfather."

Remus smiled. "Yes, I was here when Lord Black gave the orders. Told Kreacher in no uncertain terms that he was to remain at Arlington Grange and not respond to the summons of anyone other than the Lord Black himself."

"The little toe rag is lucky that my great-great-grandaunt Elladora isn't still alive," Sirius said with a scowl. "She would have had him beheaded and had his head mounted on the wall over a decade ago."

"Why?" Harry asked.

"It's something of a Black family tradition," Draco answered with a sigh. "Started by Elladora Black. Whenever a house-elf gets too old to carry a tea tray, its beheaded and the head is mounted on the wall. Although from what my mother told me that was only here at Grimmauld that that was a thing."

Sirius nodded. "Yes, my great-grandfather Cygnus bought this place in 1909. All the other Black family properties were occupied and he wanted one of his own, but he was a cheapskate and found all of the options in the wizarding world to be too expensive. So, he bought this place which is actually in the muggle world, about three blocks from the Leaky Cauldron.

"Lord Phineas Nigellus Black wasn't very happy with the purchase and shortly after had his sister Elladora move in with his younger son to keep an eye on him and oversee his marriage to a respectable pureblood witch. Cygnus married his wife Violetta Bulstrode two years later and went on to have four children."

With a nod, Remus said, "Those four children, Harry, are Sirius's maternal grandfather Pollux, your grandmother Cassiopeia, a squib named Marius, and your father's Aunt Dorea."

"Dorea," Harry said. "She's the one who married my dad's Uncle Charlus, right?"

"Yes," Sirius confirmed. "Anyway, Grandfather gave me two much younger elves, Jookey and Ciskey, and they've been hard at work cleaning up this old house. Until Remus and I moved in, nobody has lived here since my mother died in 1985, so because of that and his advanced age, Kreacher let it fall into a rather deplorable state."

"They've cleaned up and restored all of the public rooms now," Remus said. "And about half of the upstairs bedrooms, including one which has been turned into a gym."

There was a glint in Harry's eye at these words, as he asked, "Gym?"

"Yes, Harry," Remus said with a smile. "Sirius had some money exchanged and sent me out to the muggle world to buy gym equipment: free weights, a treadmill, bench press, leg press… basically one of pretty much every machine you'd find in a muggle gym."

Sirius grinned and said, "I even had the room's ensuite bathroom converted into a sauna."

"Cool," Harry said.

"We thought you'd like it," Remus said. "Which is why we asked you here. Figured you'd want to get to work getting Draco into shape."

"Oh hell yes," Harry said, before Draco could say anything. "I'm sick to death of half my body looking like it belongs to a pathetic little weakling."

"I resent that!" Draco exclaimed.

With a raised brow, Harry said, "I think you mean 'I resemble that,' Drake, because you do."

Sirius and Remus chuckled, as Draco grumbled under his breath. He knew that Harry was telling the truth. He had eyes, after all, and he could clearly see for himself the difference between Harry's side of their body and his side. That didn't mean he enjoyed having it pointed out or phrased quite that way.

-o-0-o-

"Damn it, why isn't Harry helping?" Draco whined two days later, as he struggled to push the plate of the leg press machine away from him with only one leg.

"You know why, Draco," said Jackson Tennant, the muggle-raised halfblood personal trainer and junior healer that Harry had been working with before the accident.

He'd been surprised when he first saw Harry and Draco, but he was a wizard and so had seen plenty of strange things during his time at Hogwarts. After what happened was explained to him, he'd just nodded and got on with planning an exercise regimen to get Draco's fitness level up to Harry's and to maintain Harry's in the meantime.

Before Draco could say anything, Jackson added, "So do stop whining like a little baby, will you? It's grating on both Harry's and my last nerves."

"Jacks is right, Drake," Harry said. "Even now with only one leg, I can press more than double the amount that you can, so neither one of us would get any benefit from me helping you."

Seeing that Draco looked like he was about to say something, Jackson said, "No, Draco, don't say it. You'd just slack off, let Harry do all the work, and compared to Harry, continue looking like a pathetic little weakling."

Draco growled. "I am not a pathetic little weakling!"

"No?" Jackson asked. "Then stop whining and prove us wrong."

Shaking his head, Harry said, "I've seen how vain you are, Drake. Are you really going to have us go to school like this? Where anyone who isn't blind is going to be able to see the difference in our fitness levels and judge you lacking?"

Draco didn't say anything more and just redoubled his efforts, as Jackson and Harry gave each other a thumbs up outside of Draco's field of vision.

-o-0-o-

Later that day, Blaise Zabini and Theodore Nott come through the Floo in the drawing room of Malfoy Manor, where they were greeted by Narcissa Malfoy.

Motioning towards a small settee across from the armchair she was standing in front of, she said, "Hello boys, please have a seat."

Blaise and Theo shared a look at this, as they hadn't been expecting to talk with Draco's mother, but they knew better than to refuse the formidable Lady Malfoy.

Once Blaise and Theo were seated and Dokky had served tea to all three of them, Narcissa said, "As you know, we were under the mistaken impression for a time that my son Draco had died on the night of the World Cup, along with Harry Potter."

Blaise and Theo nodded. They had both been greatly saddened by Draco's death and had been very happy when they read the story in the Prophet announcing that Draco's funeral had been canceled since he was found alive.

"What hasn't yet been announced in the papers, but will be before the Hogwarts term starts," Narcissa said, "is the reason why Harry and Draco were believed to be dead."

"I thought their remains had been found at the World Cup?" Blaise asked.

Theo nodded. "When we saw the news they were alive, we assumed a grievous error had been made and the remains misidentified."

"A fair assumption," Narcissa said. "But not true. Harry's and Draco's remains were indeed found at the World Cup Grounds and they were not misidentified."

Seeing the confused looks on both boys' faces, Narcissa smiled and said, "This hasn't been reported yet, but will be before the new term begins. Harry and Draco had a serious splinching accident."

"Splinching?" Blaise asked. "That's when you leave part of yourself behind when you apparate right?"

"Yes," Narcissa confirmed. "The reason we thought Draco was dead was because he left behind his right arm, right leg, and the third of his torso that contains his heart and lungs."

Theo's eyes widened at this. "How could he possibly survive that?! Losing an arm and a leg would suck, but last time I checked, you can't survive without a heart and lungs."

"That's very true," Narcissa said. "Harry Potter, meanwhile, left behind his left arm, left leg, and the third of his torso that includes his liver and kidneys."

"That should also have been fatal," Blaise said, before he got a contemplating look on his face. After a moment, he asked, "Wait, are they sharing now?"

"Sharing?" Theo asked, obviously confused.

"I think I read something to that effect once," Blaise said. "That in cases of a lethal splinching accident occurring during Side-Along Apparition, it's possible for magic to fuse two people together to save their lives."

Theo's eyes widened as he looked over at Narcissa for confirmation.

She nodded. "Yes, Blaise, they're sharing now." Pausing for a moment to let that sink in, she added, "Between the two of them, they now have two heads, a single torso, two arms, two legs, ten fingers, ten toes, and multiple shared internal organs. Including their magical cores, so separation is impossible without rendering them both squibs."

"Becoming squibs is the least of their worries," Lucius said as he walked into the room, motioning for Blaise and Theo to remain sitting when they'd moved to stand upon his entrance. "Considering they now share a heart and other internal organs which neither can live without, separation would assuredly result in their deaths."

Walking over to the liquor cart and pouring himself a snifter of Old Ogden's Black Label, he said, "And giving all of the shared organs to Draco at the expense of Harry Potter's life is out of the question."

Nodding, Blaise said, "Yes, Potter is the last of his line, so doing that would be line theft."

"It would also put the Malfoy family's reputation in the toilet," Theo added, his tone apologetic. "Sacrificing The-Boy-Who-Lived to save Draco."

"Indeed," Lucius said, as he took a sip of his drink. His parents hadn't raised a fool, after all, and he knew that Draco's friends were one hundred percent correct. "Well, now that you boys know, why don't you head upstairs?"

Blaise and Theo nodded, as Narcissa said, "They're temporarily staying in the bedroom across the hall from Draco's, while Draco's old room is being redecorated."

Blaise snorted. "Hopefully Potter adds a bit of color and lightens it up a bit."

"I know, right?" Theo asked. "I don't know what Draco was thinking when he decorated that room. I've seen mausoleums that were cheerier."

Lucius and Narcissa laughed at that, as they shared a knowing look. They both agreed that their son's color palette when decorating his bedroom had been a bit too dark.

Brightening it up a bit would be nice, if only because it would save them some money on lamp oil. The dark colors in Draco's bedroom absorbed light to the point that he had to have more than double the number of oil lamps lit in the room in order to see anything, even during the day since he tended to keep the heavy dark green curtains shut to block out the sun.

If the elder Malfoys didn't know better, they'd think their son was a vampire. Honestly, in that regard, they were almost happy that his joining with Harry meant he'd finally get outside and start getting some sun. The last time she'd been home, even Malinda had asked them if Draco was ill, as she said he looked paler than Abraxas had in his coffin after lying in state for two weeks.

-o-0-o-

Harry and Draco, meanwhile, were up in their temporary bedroom, on their way over to the wardrobe to get clothes. They currently only had a towel wrapped around their waist and a towel around each of their necks, as they'd just gotten out of the shower after portkeying home from their morning workout at Grimmauld Place.

Their back was to the door, so they didn't see it open and thus didn't know they were no longer alone in the room until Blaise and Theo wolf-whistled at them.

"Damn," Blaise said. "Knowing what happened and actually seeing it…"

"Yes… quite the shock," Theo agreed. "Goddess above, Potter, you're ripped."

"Draco, you were supposed to lock the door," Harry muttered just loud enough that only Draco would hear him.

"I did," Draco whispered back.

"Could you guys give us some privacy?" Harry asked.

"Why so you can get dressed?" Blaise asked with a grin on his face. Not waiting for Harry to answer, he said, "Nah."

"Yeah, come on, Potter," Theo said. "We're all boys here. It's not like you've got anything that we haven't all seen."

"Not to mention the fact that we're intimately acquainted with Draco," Blaise added.

Draco sighed. "They're not going to leave." Turning his head so that he could look at them, he scowled and added, "They're stubborn buggers."

Blaise and Theo didn't even bother to look upset with that description because it was true, so why be upset? Instead they just sat down on the bed and made it clear they weren't going anywhere.

Grabbing a pair of midway briefs, socks, and an undershirt, Harry and Draco moved away from the wardrobe and back towards the bathroom door.

"Hey no fair!" Blaise said, as he took out his wand and shot a Locking Charm at the bathroom door, even as Theo grinned and said, "_Accio towel!_"

With their hands full between the clothes they'd intended to put on and their crutches, Harry and Draco tried in vain to grab the towel but it was too late and soon the towel around their waist was in a triumphant looking Theo's hand.

Harry and Draco both wanted to hex the ever living shit out of Blaise and Theo but the problem was they'd have to turn to face them to do that and that would mean full-frontal nudity. Which would mean revealing that the heads above their waist weren't the only things they didn't share.

Of course, there was also the issue that they kept their wands in forearm holsters that they weren't currently wearing because it didn't make sense to wear them in the shower. So they'd locked them away in a drawer along with their wands in a cabinet in the bathroom… that Blaise had just locked the door to.

Dropping the socks and undershirt that he was holding in his hand, Draco reached over and unstrapped Harry's forearm from his crutch. While Draco was starting to gain some definition from their workouts, Harry was still the strongest of the two of them. With his arm unstrapped, Harry covered his and Draco's cocks and balls with their underwear, cupping them in his hand in a nearly iron grip.

With their modesty saved, they turned and gave withering looks at Blaise and Theo, as Draco said, "Sweet Circe's sagging tits, guys, what the bloody hell?"

"We've seen you naked before, Draco," Theo said. "Practically every single day of that last three years in the dorm showers."

"Not to mention that you've joined Theo and I in our beds on more than one occasion," Blaise added. "With sleeping not being on the agenda."

"I'm not disputing any of that," Draco said, because he couldn't. "And if it were just up to me, I wouldn't care. But in case you haven't noticed it's not just up to me. You've never seen Harry naked and he certainly didn't give you permission to."

Blaise and Theo shared a look at that, before Blaise lifted his wand toward the bathroom door and unlocked it as Theo held out the summoned towel. Draco grabbed hold of it, before Harry and Draco made their way over to the bathroom and went inside.

Before they could completely close the door, however, Blaise stuck his hand between the door and the frame, holding the shirt and socks that Draco had dropped on the floor. Draco took them with a mumbled thanks, before closing the door as soon as Blaise's hand was out of the way.

Ten minutes later, Harry and Draco, emerged from the bathroom, having added a robe in pale blue silk over the clothes they'd taken into the bathroom.

"We're sorry, Potter," Blaise said. "We were wrong and we apologize."

Theo nodded. "Yeah, um, I guess we're just so used to a complete lack of formality with Draco that we didn't think."

Harry sighed. "It's okay. I get it. This whole thing is a lot to get used to."

"Yeah," Blaise said. "I suppose it's a hundred times worse for you both."

Nodding, Draco said, "Yes, in a split second, Harry's and my lives changed permanently."

"We're still adjusting to it ourselves," Harry said. "I understand that we're not the only ones who have to adjust, however."

"True," Theo agreed. "I can't even imagine how I'd react if I woke up tomorrow sharing a body with Blaise."

Draco smirked. "I can't imagine you'd react well, considering that it would be a serious damper on your relationship. Harry and I, at least, had the advantage of not being a romantic couple before this happened."

Blaise grinned. "Well, you do sometimes argue like a married couple."

"Is that really what it looked like to others?" Harry asked, genuinely curious.

"Yes," Theo answered, without any hesitation. "Sometimes it almost seemed as if you sought each other out to argue and then you'd argue about the most banal of things that…"

"That what?" Draco asked, when Theo trailed off.

Theo and Blaise shared a look, before Blaise sighed, and said, "Well over half the school thinks that the old adage about their being a thin line between love and hate applies to you."

"They're betting on how long before you get together," Theo revealed. "Together romantically that is." Motioning towards Harry and Draco, he added, "This, however, is not something anyone saw coming."

"Oh sweet Merlin," Harry muttered.

"How is it that this is the first I'm hearing of this?" Draco asked. "Slytherin house runs all of the betting pools."

Blaise raised an eyebrow at that. "We clearly wouldn't be very good Slytherins if we couldn't be cunning enough to keep certain pools a secret from the people they involve, even when they're in Slytherin house."

Draco was silent for a moment, before he asked, "So, just out of curiosity, how big is the pool and what are the terms?"

"It's divided up by which school year you'll get together by the end of," Theo said. "A total of 320 students have placed bets across all four houses. The majority currently thinks you'll get together by the end of fifth year. Only ten of the people who placed a wager think you won't ever become a romantic couple."

"320 students?" Harry asked. "Are there even that many enrolled?"

"That includes all thirty of this past year's outgoing seventh years," Blaise answered. "Thanks to some of the students from wealthier families with gold burning holes in their pockets placing wagers, the pool is currently sitting at 524 galleons, 65 sickles, and 9 knuts to be divided among the winners."

Harry's eyes were as wide as saucers as he exclaimed, "524 galleons?! That's over sixty-five thousand pounds sterling!"

Draco was surprised by the amount too, but as he figured that Harry had already expressed enough shock for the both of them, he instead asked, "What was the stated definition of 'romantic couple?'"

"If you're asking if you can collect by simply turning your heads and kissing each other than no," Theo said. "Romantic couple was defined to mean formal courtship of no less than a year, with betrothal, marriage, and children within ten years of the start of the courtship date."

"Well clearly that's not happening," Harry said. "Even before the accident that was never going to happen because I've never felt that way about Draco, but we obviously aren't getting married to or having children with each other."

Draco nodded. "I'll admit that I had a bit of a crush and a few fantasies about Harry, but they died very quickly after we woke up from our comas in France. Fantasizing about him now would just be weird."

"Yes, it would," Theo agreed. "I'd ask if the two of you wanted to add to the pot so that you could join the ten who wagered you'd never get together, but that would be against the rules, since nobody is allowed to place a wager into a pool that involves them."

"How much are you two in for?" Draco asked.

"Nothing, thankfully," Blaise said. "Crabbe and Goyle are going to be none too pleased though. They both bet thirty galleons that you'd be together by the end of fifth year."

"Their wagers were the highest out of everyone," Theo added.

-o-0-o-

An hour or so later, after chatting with them, Harry was much more comfortable with Blaise and Theo. He knew that some people at Hogwarts would dispute the idea that a Slytherin could be a good person, but Harry had never really believed that a few bad apples spoiled the whole house. He just never brought it up to avoid a fight with Ron.

He was almost sorted into Slytherin though and he now shared a body with a Slytherin, so he didn't really have much of a choice but to keep an open mind.

The Heads of House at Hogwarts were still discussing what would happen once the school year started. As a result, Harry wasn't sure if he and Draco would be getting their own room outside of their houses, or if they'd be living in Gryffindor Tower or the Slytherin Dungeons, or splitting their time between them.

No matter what they decided though he knew that he'd be spending a lot more time with Slytherins now, so he may as well try to get to know them. Blaise and Theo, at least, seemed nice enough. And Harry could admit that they were attractive. He could see why Draco had gone to bed with them all those times.

"Roger and Cedric, huh?" Blaise asked. "They're definitely hot."

"Yeah, there's no disputing that," Theo said.

Draco nodded, before he grinned devilishly and said, "Only thing I'm worried about is that Potter will wreck our chances of being with either of them."

"What?" Harry asked. "Why?"

"You're too inexperienced and well, virginal," Draco answered. "I know Roger isn't a virgin and I'm pretty sure that Cedric isn't either."

"He's not," Blaise said. "He was dating two of his housemates, Austin and Dallas Slughorn, for just over a year. From what I've heard they broke up over winter break this past year, although it was an amicable split and they're still friends."

"Yeah, I heard the same," Theo confirmed, as he looked at Harry and added, "Of course, the interesting thing about Austin and Dallas is that they're conjoined twins… joined the same way that you and Draco are."

"Austin and Dallas?" Draco asked, as he tried to picture them in his mind.

"Never met them," Harry said. "And I'm having a hard time picturing them."

"Same," Draco said. "Of course, barring the students in our year or the ones from noble families, I don't really know the students in other houses."

Nodding, Harry said, "Yes, unless they're prefects, head students, or on the Quidditch team, I can't say that I really pay much attention to any of the older students in other houses."

"Austin and Dallas are the grandnephews of Potions Master and former Hogwarts professor Horace Slughorn," Blaise said. "They're also Lord Garrick Ollivander's great-grandnephews on their father's side."

"Yes, they have the prematurely graying hair to prove it," Theo said.

"Prematurely graying hair?" Harry asked.

"It's an Ollivander family trait," Draco said. "They all tend to go gray early. A few of them dye their hair to hide it, but they all usually go gray at least a decade—or more—earlier than most people. Lord Ollivander himself, for example, was entirely gray by the age of twenty-five."

"Yes, Austin and Dallas will probably be completely gray by the time they turn twenty," Theo said. "Last I saw them their hair was graying blond, but honestly I think it looks good on them."

"I'm surprised I haven't noticed them before," Harry said. "A gray-haired teenager is something that I would think would stand out."

"They're not the only ones with gray hair in Hufflepuff," Blaise said. "It's more silvery gray, but Cameron MacCallum has it too. He's in the same year as Cedric, Austin, and Dallas."

"From what I've heard, however," Theo added, "Cameron's hair isn't naturally that color… he actually dyes it silver-gray."

"Interesting," Draco said, before turning to Harry and adding, "I know you'll probably say no to having sex with Blaise and Theo, but would you at least agree to some kissing lessons? So that you know what you're doing when the time comes?"

Harry blushed slightly, before he said, "I suppose I wouldn't be opposed to it."

And with that, Harry and Draco found themselves lying on the bed with Theo lying next to Draco and kissing him, while Blaise laid next to Harry and gave him a few pointers, before giving him some practical instruction.

-o-0-o-

To be continued…

And there you have Part 2 of Chapter Twelve of 'The Battle is Joined.' I hope it was worth the wait. Not sure which one, but Brotherly Love or The Seventh Olympian is likely to be the next story I update, as I've spent roughly the last month working on the next chapters for them, this one, and The Prophecy of the Seven which got updated a few days ago.

As you no doubt noticed, this story doesn't use the canon exchange rate stated by JK Rowling that has a galleon being equal to approximately 5 pounds. So, the exchange rates are as follows:

One galleon is valued at £125 or $166 US.

One sickle is valued at £1.25 or $1.66 US. There are 100 sickles to a galleon.

One knut is valued at £0.125 or $0.16625 US. There are 10 knuts to a sickle and 1,000 knuts to a galleon.

The values are based on the coins being made from gold, silver, and bronze, with the value based on a percentage of what a troy ounce of gold and silver was worth in 1994, which is when this story is currently set. Galleons are valued at 1/2 a troy ounce of gold and sickles at 1/4 a troy ounce of silver.

All prices in this story's universe will be modified so that most things are priced in sickles and knuts, with only the far more expensive items being priced in galleons. So no, Harry's wand didn't cost 9 galleons (£1,125) and Lockhart's books weren't 5 galleons (£625) each.

Anyway, until next time, stay safe everyone.


End file.
